Beijing, June 10th (People's Daily) - Recently, the Marine Strategic Planning and Economic Department of the Ministry of Natural Resources released the 2023 National Seawater Utilization Report. The report shows that there are 156 seawater desalination projects in China in 2023, with a scale of 2522956 tons/day, an increase of 165908 tons/day compared to 2022. The national seawater desalination projects are distributed in 10 coastal provinces, including Liaoning, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hainan. The main uses of seawater desalination water are industrial and domestic water. The report shows that in 2023, the water consumption for seawater cooling in China was 185.379 billion tons, an increase of 8.332 billion tons from 2022. The annual water consumption for seawater cooling in Liaoning, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong exceeded 10 billion tons. Coastal provinces (regions, cities) are actively promoting the allocation and utilization of seawater desalination water. Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangxi, Hainan and other provinces have incorporated seawater utilization into local unconventional water source allocation, water resource utilization, carbon peak, marine economy and other implementation plans, management regulations, or implementation opinions. The role of seawater desalination in the coastal water supply guarantee system is further enhanced. Reporter Liu Shiyao (Le Xin She)