Officials in Beijing yesterday expressed their confidence that the thirsty city will have enough water to meet rising demand during the 2008 Olympic Games.

"Beijing is capable of realizing its commitment to ensuring water supply in terms of quantity and quality when the big event comes," said Bi Xiaogang, deputy director of the Beijing Water Authority.

Bi said plans have been made to guarantee water supply to all Olympic venues and related facilities. The plans involve water sources, delivery and quality, though the official did not offer any specific examples.

Due to its persistent water shortage, Beijing is making strong efforts to expand water sources, explore water-saving technology and its application, and adopt advanced methods to control river contamination.

Currently, water supply capacity in Beijing urban area is 2.75 million cubic meters every day. The quantity is believed to be sufficient for people's needs, given that the peak daily consumption last year was 2.42 million cubic meters.

Experts forecast the daily water need will climb to around 2.7 million cubic meters by 2008.

"It means water will be used at full capacity, therefore capacity should be increased to meet the rising demand," said Hu Bo, water supply administration office chief under the Beijing Water Authority.

Some US$62.5 million has been put in place for the capacity expansion project, which is expected to begin by the end of this year.

According to Hu, the expansion is being made on the basis of renovating three old water plants.

By the end of 2007, Beijing will be capable of supplying 3 million to 3.15 million cubic meters every day.

In addition, the use of recycled water has been highlighted as an important solution to the water shortage problem.

This water will be used for irrigating urban green land, filling landscape rivers and car-washing, said Liu Hong, chief of Beijing Saving Water Centre.

Statistics show the total of 89.48 million square meters of public green land in Beijing consume 60 million cubic meters of water every year.

Last year, some 3 million cubic meters of recycled water was used in a trial irrigation project to water 1.5 million square meters of green land.

A total of 260 million cubic meters of recycled water was used last year, 1 million more than in 2004.

The city aims to consume a further 100 million cubic meters of "second-hand" water next year, with the total reaching 600 million by 2010.

(China Daily June 29, 2006)