Abstract: The implementation of industrial carbon peak action is an important task to achieve the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality (double carbon) goals.Improving industrial water efficiency is the key to achieve industrial low-carbon transformation, which lays a solid foundation for the carbon peak of industry in 2030. This paper fully considered the task of carbon peaking in the industrial field at the present stage, and incorporated water conservation and emission reduction into the input-output index system. By using the super-efficiency SBM model, Dagum Gini coefficient decomposition and convergence test, this study investigated industrial water efficiency and identified the gaps among  the upper, middle and lower reaches of provinces along the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2010 to 2021. The empirical results showed that: (1) the overall improvement of industrial water use efficiency was slow, where  Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces and Shanghai city ranked the top three. Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces showed relatively stable industrial water use efficiency.The industrial water use efficiency in Hunan Province was greatly improved.There existed a downward trend in industrial water use efficiency in Anhui and Guizhou provinces.(2) Both the overall gap and intra-regional gap of industrial water use efficiency demonstrated an enlarging trend.The upstream and downstream inter-regional gap and the fluctuation range were large. The interaction of inter-regional and intra-regional gap contributed the most to the overall gap. (3) The σ convergence characteristics of industrial water use efficiency were not obvious. The dispersion of different regions did not show a consistent decline over time. There was only a brief convergence trend from 2020 to 2021, but there were typical absolute β convergence and conditional convergence characteristics in the whole sampling period. This implied that the regions with low industrial water use efficiency were struggling to narrow the gap between those with high industrial water use efficiency. Meanwhile, the industrial water use efficiency of each region would eventually converge to its own steady-state level. Therefore, in order to improve industrial water use efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, it is necessary to further enhance the ability of industrial technology innovation, accelerate the regional integration construction, and promote the industrial green development.