China bets on manufactured water, and wants to sell it to the world
China is emerging as a major supplier of water technology to parched countries across Asia, the Middle East and Africa, as shrinking natural supplies at home push Beijing to invest heavily in manufactured freshwater, industry experts say. Chinese firms are selling desalination membranes, filtration equipment and engineering services to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, often through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which connects Chinese capital and infrastructure projects to developing markets. Even Gulf states, long desalination pioneers, are turning to Chinese manufacturers to produce equ