Abstract
China is facing severe pressure on its water resources and water environments. Calculating the industrial water efficiency of each province is an important index for the central government to evaluate local governments. In the traditional water resources evaluation index, the industrial water use efficiency and pollutant discharge are evaluated separately. In this paper, we collected industrial input data, output data and pollutant discharge data with a four-stage data envelopment analysis to calculate China's industrial water use efficiency with and without considering pollutant discharge, and then analyzed the factors influencing the industrial water use efficiency. The results show that the eastern coastal provinces of China have the highest water use efficiency and are less affected by pollutant discharge than other provinces. The industrial water use efficiency of the central and western provinces is lower than that of the other provinces, and the industrial water use efficiency in the central provinces is greatly affected by pollutant discharge. Factor endowment, economic development level, scientific and technological progress, industrial structure, proportion of foreign investment, water consumption per 10000 yuan of value-added by industry, industrial sewage treatment capacity and educational investment have a significant influence on the industrial water use efficiency of China. We suggest that the government strengthen the construction of sewage plants and other related infrastructure in central provinces when conducting the industrial transfer of heavy polluting enterprises.
Highlights
China’s rapid growth in industrial output has put substantial pressure on water resources and water environment[1,2]
Related to industrial water use efficiency is the production of industrial wastewater which contains pollutants that will cause damage to the water environment
We first analyzed the water use efficiency of the Chinese industry without considering pollutant discharge, and the results showed the following: 1. China’s industrial water use efficiency increased from 0.71 in 2007 to 0.784 in 2011, and it remained relatively stable
Summary
China’s rapid growth in industrial output has put substantial pressure on water resources and water environment[1,2]. There are significant differences in China’s industrial structure, water resource factor endowment[3], and water-saving policies among provinces[4,5]. China’s water consumption is mainly divided into domestic, industrial, agricultural and ecological water consumption[6]. China used 604.02 billion cubic meters of water in 2016, including 130.8 billion cubic meters for industrial use [7]. The industrial water consumption varies greatly in different regions of China. Industrial water use is the highest in eastern coastal areas, while that in the northwest is only one-tenth of that in eastern coastal cities.
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