China’s revised Water Supply Regulations (State Council Decree No. 831) will officially take effect on June 1, 2026. It is the first administrative regulation to explicitly push forward the automation, digitalization, and intelligent upgrading of the water supply industry, with rigid mandatory targets set for the whole sector.
Under the new rules, the national water pipeline leakage rate shall be strictly controlled below 9%, the coverage rate of smart water meters shall reach no less than 90%, and all newly-built water plants and pipeline networks must be fully connected to smart management platforms. A dual penalty system targeting both institutions and individuals will be imposed for substandard water quality, with a maximum fine of 500,000 yuan.
To match the regulatory rollout, China plans to renovate 175,000 kilometers of water supply pipelines and another 175,000 kilometers of drainage pipelines during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. The total investment will exceed 5 trillion yuan, marking one of the largest stock infrastructure renovation campaigns in the water utilities industry. Joint documents issued by five central ministries require the national reclaimed water utilization rate to hit over 30% in 2026, and cut water consumption per 10,000-yuan GDP by 10% by the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan compared with the 2025 level.
In the sewage treatment segment, the amendment to GB 18918-2002, enforced in March 2026, introduces dual assessment standards, including daily average values and instantaneous values for four core pollutants: COD, ammonia nitrogen, total nitrogen, and total phosphorus. The conventional compliance practice of adjusting monitoring data via mixed water samples is completely banned. Starting from 2028, the daily average discharge limit of total phosphorus for all urban sewage treatment plants will be uniformly lowered to 0.5 mg/L from the current mainstream standard of 1 mg/L, raising stringent requirements for operational stability and advanced phosphorus removal technologies.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has launched a public solicitation for advanced water pollution prevention and control technologies, covering ten key sectors such as urban and rural domestic sewage treatment, industrial and industrial park wastewater treatment, and emerging pollutant remediation. The initiative aims to compile the 2026-version National Technical Guideline Catalogue for Pollution Prevention and Control (Water Pollution Control Sector), with the submission deadline set on May 31, 2026.
Against the dual drive of stringent regulatory norms and technological upgrading initiatives, China’s entire water industry has officially stepped into a standardized, law-governed, high-quality development phase.