The city is making good progress in conserving the use of water, the Shanghai Water Authority announced at the opening ceremony of water-saving awareness week over the weekend.
At the demonstration base of the National Engineering Research Center of Protected Agriculture, scientists are growing peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes in specially designed greenhouses.
Rainwater is used for all irrigation.
Ding Xiaotao from the center said the greenhouses use some 23,000 cubic meters of rainwater every year.
“To grow 1 kilogram of cucumber, we need only 13 liters of water,” said Ding.
“Traditional irrigation method would require 10 times more to grow the same weight of cucumbers.”
He said such greenhouse technology is now widely used in Jinshan and Pudong.