BEIJING - The State Council, China's cabinet, unveiled guidelines on Monday to ensure sustainable supplies of fresh water and to protect water resources by raising China's capability to desalinate seawater.

China will increase its daily seawater desalination capability to 2.6 million cubic meters by the end of 2015, up from 660,000 cubic meters in 2011, according to a statement from the National Development and Reform Commission.

In the next five years, China will lay out and build a chain of seawater desalination facilities and technologies.

A shortage of fresh water has become a key constraint on development, according to the Commission.

China's freshwater resources per capita are about 28 percent of the global average and about two thirds of Chinese cities are facing a shortage of water.