SHENZHEN’S water resources bureau plans to promote recycled water in car washing and increase water fees at car washes to save water resources.

In a letter responding to the city’s lawmakers, the bureau said that at least 20 million cubic meters of water, equivalent to the capacity of Xili Reservoir, were used to wash cars a year. In stark contrast, Shenzhen is a city with a serious water shortage with the per capita water resources at 200 cubic meters, one-10th of the amount of Guangdong.

However, a check of over 1,300 car washes showed that 90 percent weren’t equipped with facilities to use recycled water and 60 percent of those that had been equipped with the facilities didn’t use them because of the high cost of maintenance, peculiar smell of the water and bad after-sales service of equipment suppliers.

At present, the water used for washing cars costs 17 yuan (US$2.50) per ton and the water to wash one car costs 2 yuan, much lower than the 30 to 50 yuan price of getting a car washed.

In Beijing, the water price for the car wash industry is 160 yuan per ton. More than 100 car washes have started to use recycled water as it saves their business a lot of money. (Han Ximin)