BEIJING — China's total annual water use is around 600 billion cubic meters, and water use efficiency has been improving, said an official.

Wei Shanzhong, vice-minister of the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR), made the remarks when promoting a national competition on water saving, which was organized by the MWR.

In 2018, 66.8 cubic meters of water was used for 10,000 yuan ($1,410) of GDP and 41.3 cubic meters of water was used for 10,000 yuan of value-added industrial output, down 18.9 percent and 20.9 percent respectively from 2015, Wei said.

The effective utilization coefficient of farmland irrigation water reached 0.554 in 2018, 0.018 higher than that of 2015, Wei said.

In order to popularize water conservation knowledge and enhance the awareness of the whole society on water conservation, the MWR has organized a national competition on water conservation knowledge, Wei said.

The competition will run from the end of August to early October, involving water conservation policies, agricultural water conservation and industrial water conservation.