In order to promote the construction of water-saving cities, the city's Water Authority officially began yesterday an investigation into the current state of water saving in different regions and industries across the city. Results from the first day of the survey show that 36 colleges and universities within the city have already adopted IC card intelligent water saving systems on campus, as well as installing water saving equipment and devices. These measures save around 10 million tons of water annually, which is almost equivalent to the total daily supply of tap water for the city of Tianjin, with a population of over 10 million.
According to reports, the IC card intelligent water saving system mainly encourages users to improve the efficiency of their water usage in order to achieve water savings. The water saving system connects water meters with electricity meters. Users insert their cards to release water and remove them to stop the flow, paying more for higher usage and less for lower usage. If no fee is incurred, the system automatically closes and stops water supply. Users can see how much they are spending each time they use water, encouraging them to consciously reduce waste and unreasonable use of water resources. Li Jing, head of the Green Campus Construction Office at Tianjin University, told reporters: "Before adopting the intelligent water saving system, the average bathing time for students at Tianjin University was about one hour. Now it has been reduced to around 20 minutes. Each month, we can save up to 400 tons of water, achieving a water saving rate of 50%."
In addition to conserving water, various universities in the city are also actively constructing water saving equipment to explore new sources. Tianjin University has built a reclaimed water treatment system near its swimming pool. On average, this system can treat 500 tons of domestic sewage per day, reaching a water quality level of 4. All treated water can be reused as reclaimed water. Currently, Tianjin University has three such treatment systems, producing an average of 1,200 tons of reclaimed water per day, saving over 300,000 tons of water per month, and saving approximately 1.2 million yuan in water fees annually.