China bets on manufactured water and wants to sell it to the world

China is becoming a major supplier of water technology to dry countries across Asia, the Middle East and Africa, as shrinking natural supplies at home push Beijing to invest heavily in manufactured freshwater, industry experts say, Geo News reported, citing Reuters.

Chinese firms are selling desalination membranes, filtration equipment and engineering services to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, often through the Belt and Road Initiative. Even Gulf states, long pioneers of desalination, are turning to Chinese manufacturers for equipment at scale.

The export boom

• China exported more than $2 billion of water filtering and purifying machinery in 2025, up 25% from $1.6 billion in 2020, according to UN Comtrade.
• Vontron Technology said it shipped more than 30,000 seawater desalination membranes to Belt and Road countries last year, enough for more than 300,000 tons of daily capacity.
• PowerChina said in January it was building a water supply project in Tanzania to serve more than 450,000 people.

Water as national security

At home, Beijing has made water security a strategic priority. Spending on water conservancy has grown faster than military spending since 2015 and now exceeds 1.2 trillion yuan ($170 billion) a year, which rivals China’s central military budget, according to China Water Risk (CWR), a Hong Kong-based think tank.

In July, China brought in new rules under its Five-Year Plan that treat water as a pillar of national security and economic self-reliance, not just an environmental issue.

The push comes from risks at home. In August, a glacier collapse near the Nepal-Tibet border showed how volatile natural water sources are becoming. Tibet’s “water towers” feed rivers that supply nearly two billion people across South, Southeast and East Asia, and climate change is eroding them. In northern China, over-extraction has drained groundwater and left key farming regions in deficit.

“We could see peak water by 2050 across 10 major river systems that provide water to one in two Asians as glacier melt peaks and river flows decline,” CWR said, warning that this would put almost half the GDP of 16 countries at risk, including China. Peak water is the point at which flows from natural sources reach a maximum and then begin a steady decline.

Desalination at home

Surface water supplies about 80% of China’s freshwater, while recycled water, desalinated seawater and harvested rainwater provide just 3% to 4%. Authorities have pledged to raise that share.

China had 167 seawater desalination projects at the end of 2025, with a combined capacity of 3,076,805 tons a day, up 221,283 tons from 2024, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources. State media put the average production cost at 4 to 8 yuan per cubic metre, and industry reports expect the market to grow from $1.84 billion in 2024 to $4.66 billion in 2033.

Hurdles remain, including the scale of investment needed and public attitudes. Many Chinese still see drinking desalinated water as taboo, said Saleh Al Khabti, China president of the Saudi developer Acwa.

“China will be the leader”

Khabti said Acwa buys about 70% of its global water equipment from Chinese suppliers, and more than 90% of its renewable equipment. Acwa has pledged to invest up to $30 billion in China by 2030 and plans to spend at least $15 billion a year on Chinese equipment over the next three years across renewables, green hydrogen and desalination.

He expects desalination to follow wind and solar as “a big area of exports”. “We’re very bullish about China,” he said. “Once it’s there, China will be the leader.”

Benjamin Horton of City University of Hong Kong said China’s ability to build water technology at scale could cut costs for other water-stressed countries, and that Beijing could become Asia’s leading provider of practical water security solutions.