Golf courses in Beijing, like the 135-acre, 18-hole CBD International Golf Club, will need to find ways to maximize the reduced water supply it will be allocated with. (Photo : www.beijinggolfcourses.com)
Beijing's golf courses and ski resorts will have to deal with businesses quotas for water use based on location and annual rainfall as the country grapples with tight water supply.
According to the Beijing Water Authority, golf courses and ski resorts would either have to allocate a lot of money for water or adopt water-saving measures.
Use of water-saving equipment or an improved waste-water recycling method were the measures mentioned.
More than 60 golf courses were closed earlier this year as part of President Xi Jinping's austerity campaign.
Since 2004, water usage of golf courses had been scrutinized.
Golf course developers and consultants argued that well-designed golf courses are more efficient in water usage and complained that those improperly constructed courses give golf a bad reputation.
It costs a lot to have a well-designed golf course. In fact, golf icon Tiger Woods was given a $16.5-million deal last March to redesign two golf courses in Beijing, including the 27-hole Beijing Tian'an Holiday Golf Club.
Meanwhile, the downhill slopes of ski resorts have also drawn the ire for being wasteful enterprises, despite Beijing's desire to ramp up interest in winter sports ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022.
A new regulation intorduced earlier this year made water usage a criteria for approval of construction projects.
As of July 31, only 295 out of 456 construction projects in Beijing were approved since many lacked adequate water usage plans.
However, Chinese officials are worried about water consumption nationwide.
According to an HSBC report last month, China's water use last year totaled 622 billion cubic meters, on track to meet a 2015 government cap of 635 billion cubic meters.
