Water Conservation Regulations.

As the first national-level regulations on water conservation, these Regulations provide a comprehensive framework for achieving water security and ecological sustainability. The Regulations are developed to promote water conservation in the whole society, ensure national water security, and promote high-quality development.
The Regulations consist of 52 Articles divided into 6 Chapters: General provisions; Management of water use; Water conservation measures; Safeguards and supervision;Legal liabilitis; Supplematary provisions.
The Regulations make provisions for water use management, including: 1. Setting specific water usage quotas for vital sectors such as agriculture, industrial production, and service industries and differentiated metering and pricing strategies based on the source and usage of water; 2. Implementing total annual water usage control by administrative region; 3. Implementing planned water management for units with a certain scale of water usage; 4.Implementing water efficiency labeling management for water products with high water-saving potential and wide usage range; etc. The construction of high water consuming industrial projects should be strictly controled in areas with severe water scarcity and overexploitation of groundwater.
The Regulations also specify water conservation measures in sectors like agricultural and industrial production, and rules on supervision and safeguards for water conservation, including: To promote agricultural water-saving and efficiency enhancement, guide agricultural production and operation entities to adjust their planting and breeding structure and agricultural water use structure reasonably; To promote industrial water-saving and emission reduction, requiring industrial enterprises to adopt advanced and applicable water-saving technologies, processes, and equipment; To establish a precise subsidy mechanism for agricultural water use and a water-saving reward mechanism; To provide subsidies to eligible water-saving projects; To guide financial institutions to increase their financing support for water-saving projects; To encourage the development of water-saving service industries; To support water rights trading; To include the completion of water-saving goals in the assessment scope for local people's governments and their responsible persons. Moreover, the Regulations define legal responsibilities for unlawful acts such as using outdated and water-intensive technologies, equipment and products that have been eliminated by government orders.