Recently, the Ministry of Water Resources released the 2024 key points for water conservation work in the water conservancy system, proposing that the expected targets for 2024 are: national water consumption per 10,000 yuan of GDP to decrease by 13% compared with 2020, water consumption per 10,000 yuan of industrial added value to decrease by 13% compared with 2020, the effective utilization coefficient of farmland irrigation water to be further improved, striving for annual utilization of unconventional water to exceed 18 billion cubic meters, and the reclaimed water utilization rate in water-scarce cities at prefecture level and above to reach more than 24%.

　　Accelerate the improvement of water conservation systems and policies. Improve the water conservation regulatory system and water conservation planning system; improve the water use quota system, organize the formulation and revision of more than 5 national standards for water use quotas in industry and services, and guide localities in formulating and revising more than 150 provincial-level water use quotas; select about 5 provinces to carry out national water budget management pilots at the provincial, prefecture-level, and county levels as units.

　　Strictly implement dual control management of total volume and intensity. Promote full coverage of planned water use management for industrial and service units with annual water consumption of 10,000 cubic meters or more nationwide, and strictly supervise water use exceeding plans; organize and carry out benchmarking and compliance actions for water use quotas in thermal power, steel, hotels, universities, etc., publish lists of enterprises leading and lagging in water efficiency, and promote water-using units in relevant industries to improve water efficiency; strengthen the application of dual control indicators in water conservation evaluation, and resolutely halt projects that do not meet requirements in terms of supply and demand water volume forecasts, water conservation target indicators, water conservation measure plans, etc.

　　Deeply implement the national water conservation action. Coordinate with relevant departments to vigorously promote agricultural water conservation and efficiency improvement, industrial water conservation and emission reduction, and urban water conservation and loss reduction; strengthen water conservation actions in major regional strategies, promote the Yellow River Basin to fight a tough battle for deep water conservation and water control, and build national advanced water conservation zones; carry out actions to enhance unconventional water utilization, improve the reclaimed water pricing mechanism, cultivate the reclaimed water trading market, and focus on expanding the fields and scale of unconventional water utilization.

　　In addition, the Ministry of Water Resources will launch the implementation of water-saving society demonstration construction, coordinate the promotion of the creation of water-saving cities, irrigation districts, parks, residential communities, enterprises, units, families, etc., coordinate pilot construction of "water-saving stations" in national expressway service areas, and build a water-saving society with high quality.