Water recycling showcases to encourage best practice

A panel of six environmental experts has started bidding for governmental and private funding to help build a waste water treatment a plant designed to showcase the best practice in this field.

The panel, led by Qu Jiuhui, an academic with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, aims to build one Concept Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) within five years and add more such facilities from 2030 to 2040.

The plant, which is still in an early phase without even a location specified, comes as Chinese authorities have been stressing the need to improve the country's water treatment infrastructure.

According to the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, as of September 2013, China had 3,501 waste water treatment plants at or above county level, dealing cumulatively with 140 million cubic meters of waste water per day.

With the country's urbanization, more rural people will flood into cities, and utilities will be crucial to sustainable development.

However, problems exist in the current waste water treatment plants.

He Xiaoxia, head of the Green Beagle Institute, a Beijing-based non-governmental organization, said that the standard for waste water discharge needs to be lifted in order to avoid pollution in natural water, and accused some water treatment plants of being poorly operated.

Problems such as high consumption of energy, increasing emission of greenhouse gases and a low recycling rate of useful elements also require attention, said Yu Gang, a professor with Tsinghua University and a member of the six-person panel.