Beijing has scored great achievements in water saving during the past five years, cutting water consumption by 100 million cubic meters every year on average.

A source with the municipal water resources bureau said the aggregate water consumption in Beijing reached 3.45 billion cubic meters in 2005, compared with the 4.06 billion in 2000.

Bi Xiaogang, deputy director the bureau, said the Beijing municipal government has intensified efforts to save water for industrial, agricultural, city public and private uses to ease the water shortage in China's capital.

Beijing completed 40 key projects concerning water saving last year and made specific water usage limits for its ten major industries and agriculture, he said. It also, for the first time, announced water use quotas in Beijing's government institutions, hotels, hospitals, colleges and office buildings.

Bi said Beijing started building water saving communities in 1997, a number which rose to about 1,250 in 2005.

(Xinhua News Agency February 19, 2006)