A picture of the water desalination project in Liuheng town, Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang province, is displayed at a recent exhibition celebrating the 40th anniversary of the nation's reform and opening up. [Photo/zhoushan.cn] 

A picture showing the great water desalination project in Liuheng town, Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang province, was displayed at a recent exhibition celebrating the 40th anniversary of the nation's reform and opening up. 

The exhibition, hosted by the central government at the National Museum of China in Beijing, focused on demonstrating the remarkable achievements that have taken place in China since the reform and opening-up was initiated 40 years ago. 

The water desalination project in Liuheng, launched in 2008, aims at generating 100,000 metric tons of drinking water from sea water per day, and has seen tremendous progress made over the years. 

By the time Phase Three of the project was finished in 2015, the town had reached a capacity of 52,500 tons of drinking water from sea water, meeting the water demands of not only local residents, but also residents in the surrounding islands. 

The town has also mastered many core technologies of water desalination through a decade of R&D with domestic research institutes, with 90 percent of the Phase Three desalination equipment being domestically made instead of imported. 

The project ends the long days when residents in Liuheng town suffered greatly from severe drinking shortages, significantly reduces the nation's water desalination costs and lays a foundation for the nation's localization of water desalination equipment.

The 100,000-ton-capacity water desalination plant in Liuheng town, Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang province [Photo/zj.zjol.com]