Ningbo in East China's Zhejiang province was recently included in a national pilot program to promote the use of reclaimed water, according to local water conservancy authorities.

Despite being a coastal city, Ningbo's water resources per capita stands at 885 cubic meters, accounting for 60 percent of the provincial total and less than 50 percent of the national average.

Given the water shortage and difficulty in diverting water from outside the city, the large-scale use of reclaimed water has emerged as an important way for the city to ensure water security.

Ningbo currently has 32 centralized domestic sewage treatment plants with a daily treatment capacity of about 2.63 million metric tons and a daily production capacity of 717,900 tons of reclaimed water.

Authorities aim to develop the city into a national model for the use of reclaimed water, said an official at the Ningbo municipal Bureau of Water Conservancy. One of the goals set is increasing the utilization rate of reclaimed water in the city to 35 percent, and utilizing 700,000 tons of reclaimed water per day, during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period.

To achieve this goal, the city will strive to enhance sewage collection capacity and set up a comprehensive transmission and distribution system for reclaimed water.