To address its water shortage, China plans to double its desalination capacity to 2.6 million cubic metres of water by 2015. The country is already one of the fastest growing markets in desalination - China ranks ninth in the world in terms of seawater desalination capacity.
The country is already one of the fastest growing markets in desalination - China ranks ninth in the world in terms of seawater desalination capacity.
Every year, China faces a shortfall of some 600 million cubic metres of water.
That number will go up - along with increased urbanisation, economic development and a growing population.
Pollution adds to the problem, making water sources unfit for drinking, irrigation and industrial use.
In the capital, Beijing, the supply of water available per person is 100 cubic metres, far lower than the international average of 1,000 cubic metres.
The Chinese government is looking into a project that will deliver 1 million cubic metres of desalinated water to Beijing every day by 2016.
This will account for one-third of Beijing’s daily water consumption and mark the first time desalination is used as tap water in China.
Singaporean water company, Hyflux, entered China in 1994, providing desalinated water for industrial usage.
Since then, improvements in technology have greatly reduced cost.
Desalination is now a viable solution to China's water shortage.
Oon Jin Teik, CEO of China operations at Hyflux, said: "With the progress and the estimated forecast, the desalination capacity in China should hit about 2.2 to 2.6 million cubic metres per day by 2015. And this amount here will contribute a lot to the solving of the water scarcity problem. It will probably solve about 25-35 per cent of the total problem here."
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