Beijing witnessed a significant drop in power and water consumption over the first three quarters of the year, according to local government sources.

 

The Chinese capital consumed 819.83 kilowatt-hours of electricity for every 10,000 yuan (US$1,250) in GDP growth in the first nine months, down 4.9 percent on last year, said Yu Xiuqin, deputy head of the Beijing Municipal Statistics Bureau.

 

The city used 44.0 cubic meters of water for every 10,000 yuan in GDP growth, a fall of 17.3 percent year-on-year, Yu said.

 

Beijing realized a gross domestic product (GDP) of 551.32 billion yuan (US$68.9 billion) in the first three quarters, up 12.2 percent.

 

Yu said Beijing consumed 45.12 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in the January-September period, up 6.7 percent on the previous year, and the city used 2.42 billion cubic meters of water, down by 7.1 percent.

 

Yu said the restructuring of certain industries is a major factor in the drop in water and power consumption.

 

Relocating the steel giant Shougang Group and Beijing Coking Plant, which account for 12.5 percent of Beijing's total energy consumption, to the suburbs has also made a major contribution, Yu said.

 

Yu said Beijing would intensify its efforts to save water and reduce energy consumption and step up development of energy-saving industries.

 

China had hoped to cut its energy consumption per unit of GDP by four percent this year, as part of an ambitious plan to reduce its energy consumption by 20 percent per unit of GDP by the end of 2010.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 9, 2006)