South China's Guangdong Province has put a quota on water consumption in the hope of stopping people and businesses from wasting water.

According to the new requirement from the provincial water conservancy department, households in the provincial capital of Guangzhou will have to pay extra if they use more than 210 liters of water a day.

The requirement sets different quotas for industrial, agricultural, service sectors and for cities throughout the province taking climatic, water resources and other factors into account,

The department did not indicate how much more people will have to pay if they exceed their quota.

The quotas will be in place for a two-year trial period starting Thursday.

Guangdong has experienced increasingly intense water shortages in recent years. The province's per capita water resource is only a quarter of the world average.

Meanwhile, Guangzhou's per capita water consumption is 2.3 times higher than the world's average, which is partly due to wasteful practices.

China plans to cut its water consumption for per unit GDP by 20percent by the end of 2010, seeking an annual decrease of four percent, according to the Ministry of Water Resources.

(Xinhua News Agency March 1, 2007)