Hi @morganp, Article below . .

New action plan targets 100% urban sewerage coverage in China by 2021

A major new investment boost aims to help the country hit its environmental targets.

Earlier this month, China formally launched its long-awaited three-year action plan (2019-2021) for the improvement of levels of collection and treatment of wastewater, which includes an ambitious target to increase the wastewater collection rate to 100% in urban areas, from the current level of around 60%.

The plan also aims to eliminate the discharge of industrial wastewater, which cannot be effectively handled by most municipal treatment plants, into municipal sewers.

Low levels of urban wastewater collection are seen as one of the key reasons behind pollution of natural water bodies, and the action plan is likely to spur a major amount of new investment in treatment capacity.

INDUSTRIAL CHANGES

China’s ambitious action plan aims to divert the discharge of industrial wastewater, which cannot be effectively handled by most municipal treatment plants, into municipal sewers.

Source: Shutterstock

The new action plan is part of China’s ambitious goal to improve the overall water environment quality and clean up all of the country’s “black and odorous” river bodies – those with extreme levels of dissolved oxygen, phosphorus and nitrates – by 2030. The goal was outlined in 2015, and over the past three years numerous river remediation projects have been awarded, many through PPP projects. However a lack of similar progress with wastewater collection and sewage pipeline investment has held back progress on environmental improvement.

The government has said an increase in wastewater tariffs is likely to be needed to support the cost of the investment; however details of any increase have not yet been disclosed.