Beijing is likely to begin piping in desalinated seawater from the Bohai Sea in three years, says the State-owned Beijing Enterprises Water Group Limited, claiming that it has mastered the core technology of seawater desalination.
“The water meets all the 106 indices listed in the national water quality standards and has a higher degree of safety than the tap water Beijing is using now,” said Zhang Yilan, manager of the seawater desalination department of the group, the Beijing Daily reported Saturday.
The project is in Caofeidian in Tangshan, Hebei Province. Water will be transported 270 kilometers to Beijing through underground pipes through Tangshan, Tianjin and Langfang in Hebei Province, the report said.
The project is expected to reach a capacity of 1 million tons daily in three years, which equals one third of the daily water consumption in Beijing. The cost for the water is around 4.5 yuan ($0.72) per ton, plus a transportation cost of 2.5 to 3.5 yuan, almost double the current water price in Beijing. The group said the project won’t affect water prices for Beijing residents because it only constitutes part of the water supply, according to the Beijing Daily report.
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