Key Takeaways
- Chinese firms are expanding their presence in water technology markets across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
- Water security has become a strategic priority for China, with significant investments in water infrastructure.
- Beijing aims to leverage its water technology to address domestic water scarcity and export solutions to other countries.
China is emerging as a leading supplier of water technology to countries facing water scarcity, according to industry experts. Chinese firms are exporting desalination membranes, filtration equipment, and engineering services to nations such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, often through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
In 2025, China exported over $2 billion worth of water filtering and purifying machinery, a 25% increase from $1.6 billion in 2020, according to UN Comtrade data. Vontron Technology reported shipping more than 30,000 seawater desalination membranes to BRI countries, enough for over 300,000 tons of daily capacity.
PowerChina announced in January that it was building a water supply project in Tanzania to serve more than 450,000 people. This project exemplifies the growing demand for Chinese water technology in developing markets.
At home, Beijing has prioritized water security, with spending on water conservancy growing faster than military spending since 2015. According to China Water Risk (CWR), this spending now exceeds 1.2 trillion yuan ($170 billion) annually, rivaling China’s central military budget.
The push for water technology is driven by domestic challenges. In August, a massive collapse of ice and rock near the border between Nepal and Tibet highlighted the vulnerability of natural water sources. Tibet’s “water towers” feed headwaters for nearly 2 billion people across South, Southeast, and East Asia, and climate change is eroding these sources.
Severe over-extraction in northern China has depleted groundwater and left key farming regions with systemic deficits. CWR warns that peak water could be reached by 2050 across 10 major river systems, putting almost half the GDP of 16 countries, including China, at risk.
Water security is now treated as a pillar of national security and economic self-reliance in China. The country’s ability to develop water technology at scale could significantly reduce costs for other water-stressed countries. Benjamin Horton, dean of the School of Energy and Environment at City University of Hong Kong, believes Beijing could become Asia’s leading provider of practical water security solutions.
Through the Belt and Road Initiative, there is likely to be continued demand for hydropower, desalination, flood forecasting, irrigation, wastewater treatment, and climate-resilient infrastructure. The Five-Year Plan, rolled out in July, emphasizes the importance of water as a national security and economic issue, with authorities pledging to increase the share of recycled water, desalinated seawater, and harvested rainwater in China’s water supply.
