By Timothy Lam

Nov. 18 – China aims to become the world’s leading supplier of desalinated fresh water through investing heavily in research and development, and by placing goals to quadruple production by 2020 – from the current 680,000 cubic meters a day to as much as 3 million cubic meters per day.

However, water desalination is extremely expensive and, according to the New York Times, desalinated water costs twice as much to produce then it can actually sell for.

“Someone has to lose money,” said Guo Qigang, a water desalination plant general manager at SDIC. “We’re a state-owned corporation, and it’s our social responsibility.”

China’s latest Five-Year Plan includes the establishment of a national desalination industry. By offering tax incentives and low interest loans, the Chinese government hopes that domestic companies will be encouraged to further develop desalinating technologies.

Currently, less than 60 percent of China’s desalination equipment and technology is produced domestically, but the country hopes to raise this number to 90 percent by 2020. The estimated RMB26 billion (US$4.08 billion) state-of-the-art Beijiang Power and Desalination Plant in Tianjin would significantly help the country reach such a goal. Furthermore, institutes in six Chinese cities are researching developments in membrane technology which is vital to creating new, sophisticated and cost-effective desalination techniques.

The Chinese market for freshwater is growing fast with estimates that demand will grow by 63 percent in northern China by 2030 – faster than anywhere else in the world. Northern China has experienced rapid population growth, especially in cities like Beijing and Tianjin, and the need for already scarce water is fueling this development of water desalination technology.

Not only is water desalination technology useful for water, but the membrane technology used to desalinate could also be applied to other industries.

“The increasingly sophisticated membrane technologies…can be applied to sewage treatment, pollution control and a legion of other cutting-edge uses,” according to a recent commentary in The New York Times.

Although this thriving new industry may seem economic in nature, it is actually imperative for China that it invests in new ways to obtain fresh water. Farmers are now asked to grow crops year-round to feed the region’s massive population, thus further sucking up valuable water. Home to over 200 million people, the North China Plain is so heavily taxed that water tables below the earth are reaching critical levels.

Experts estimate that water there could be drained within the next 30 years and, being the nation’s breadbasket, that could cause a worldwide catastrophe.