In the current situation where the total amount of water resources is not optimistic, to ensure the supply of water for industrial and agricultural production, residents' daily life, and a good water environment, it is necessary to establish a water-saving society. This includes the rational development and utilization of water resources, and the significant improvement of water utilization efficiency in all aspects of industrial and agricultural water use and urban domestic water use.

Reclaimed water utilization is an important part of water conservation. It is necessary to increase the concept of reclaimed water utilization in people's minds and promote the public to choose to use water with lower quality requirements, so as to achieve the effective utilization of high-quality water resources and prevent waste caused by the improper use of superior water.

At present, reclaimed water utilization has been popularized to a certain extent in water-scarce areas. The utilization methods of reclaimed water mainly include agricultural, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery utilization, urban miscellaneous use, industrial reuse, landscape and entertainment utilization, drinking water supplementation, and groundwater replenishment, etc.

Agricultural, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery utilization: farmland irrigation, afforestation and seedling cultivation, livestock breeding, aquatic farming.

Urban miscellaneous use: urban greening, toilet flushing, street cleaning, vehicle washing, construction, fire protection. This aspect is most representative in Beijing. In 1987, Beijing issued the "Implementation Measures for the Construction and Management of Recycled Water", in which all hotels, restaurants, and apartments with a building area of over 20,000 square meters, as well as government research institutions and newly-built residential areas with a building area of over 30,000 square meters, were required to establish recycled water facilities. Up to now, Beijing has built and put into use nearly 200 decentralized recycled water facilities, most of which are concentrated in hotels, restaurants, and colleges and universities. They use daily miscellaneous water such as bathing and washing as the water source, and after treatment reach the standards of recycled water quality, which can be reused for toilet flushing, car washing, greening, etc. At present, the construction of recycled water has taken shape, and Beijing completed the water environment governance goal of "50% recycled water utilization rate" for the 2008 Olympic Games in 2007.

Industrial reuse: cooling water, washing water, boiler water, process water, product water. The secondary treatment effluent of sewage treatment plants, depending on the different uses, can be directly or further treated to reach a higher water quality and applied in industrial processes. The most common and representative use is industrial cooling water. For example, the secondary treatment effluent of the Gaobeidian Sewage Treatment Plant supplies cooling water to Huaineng Thermal Power Plant, with a supply volume of 40,000 cubic meters per day.

Landscape and entertainment utilization: ornamental landscape environment water use, recreational landscape environment water use, wetland environment water use

Drinking water supplementation: indirect drinking, direct drinking.

Groundwater replenishment: surface distribution, infiltration area water injection, direct water injection.

Reclaimed water has been proven to be completely feasible for industrial reuse, agricultural irrigation, and urban miscellaneous use through long-term practice at home and abroad.