The National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development released the list of key cities to be treated for leakage of public water supply networks, which included Baotou.

In order to improve the utilization efficiency of water resources, in March 2022, the two departments began to select 50 cities through competitive evaluation to test out treatment of water supply network leakage.

In response, Baotou compiled the Implementation Plan for the Leakage Control of Baotou Urban Public Water Supply Network and reported it to the related departments of Inner Mongolia autonomous region. After the recommendation of the autonomous region and expert evaluation, the city was selected.

The effort is an important way to promote the economical and intensive utilization of water in the city.

Making for efficient use of water will help reduce the water intake from the Yellow River, promote water saving among water supply enterprises, as well as meet the water demands of urban development and population growth with limited water use indicators.

At the same time, the pilot construction of a water supply network will help to modernize the urban governance system and governance capacity, improve the water supply safety assurance rate of the city, as well as effectively prevent secondary disasters such as road collapse and water pollution caused by pipe network leakage.