(BEIJING, March 23) -- Beijing will benefit from some 480 million cubic meters of recycled water in 2007, and the number is expected to grow to 600 million cubic meters in 2008, according to a Beijing Daily report.

The water can be used for river and lake water supplement, landscape irrigation, industrial consumption and vehicle-washing.

With the waste water recycling rate rising to 90 percent in nine of the city's plants, up to one million cubic meters of recycled water per day is made available now.

The report said about 6,000 cubic meters of underground water will be saved thanks to the use of recycled water for farmland irrigation. Due to the increase of recycled water, industrial water consumption fell to 1/4 of the city's total consumption from the 1/3 level before.