In order to solve the problem of realizing sustainable development of water resources under water resource constraints,the article takes 11 provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2012 to 2021 as research objects, measures the industrial water use efficiency of the 11 provinces and cities by using the super-efficient EBM model, and further explores the impact of heterogeneous environmental regulations on the industrial water use efficiency of the Yangtze River Economic Belt by using the spatial Durbin model. The results show that industrial water use efficiency of the provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt is significantly different, with the industrial water use efficiency in the upper, middle and down reaches showing a trend of high upstream and downstream and low in the middle reach.Command-constrained, market-incentivized and public-voluntary environmental regulations promote the improvement of industrial water use efficiency. Heterogeneous environmental regulations have a strong spatial spillover effect on industrial water use efficiency. Command-constrained and market-inspired environmental regulations have a pollution transfer effect on neighboring cities, which is not conducive to the improvement of industrial water use efficiency in neighboring cities.