A RENOVATION project has been completed to supply 8,000 tons of desalinated seawater to the city’s development zone every day.

    The desalinated seawater has the same quality as tap water, according to Datang Huangdao Power Plant.

    Suffering from continuing drought, the development zone signed a strategic agreement in February with the power plant for the supply of desalinated seawater in case of an emergency.

    The power plant has installed three desalination plants which produce a total of 13,000 tons of desalinated seawater each day.

    However, one power plant has been temporarily closed due to an increase in coal price.

    The power plant consumes around 3,000 tons of water each day, becoming the first power plant in the country to rely on desalinated seawater.

    Director of the electricity generation department, Li Jianbo, said each ton of desalinated seawater cost about 10 yuan.

    However, he was still confident of the prospects of desalinated seawater.

    A scarcity in water resources would force large water consumers to turn to desalinated seawater, he said.

    With mass supply, the cost of desalinated seawater would probably fall below seven yuan per ton, he said.

    (Li Hao, Han Guangliang)