Water treatment Water resource management China

China assigns more funds to improve water quality as 2020 deadline looms

Thursday, 21 March 2019

Reusing brackish groundwater, wastewater and stormwater

With 2020 fast approaching the Chinese government has set out intentions to invest more money to meet water quality improvement targets.

During the recent National People’s Congress (NPC), a draft budget report suggested RMB30 billion ($4.5 billion) could be invested on water pollution management infrastructure over the next year. According to GWI, this is a 45 percent increase on the previous year’s figure.

Released in 2015, the government’s Water Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan outlined a 10 percent target for urban levels of “black and odorous water”.

Defined as water containing extreme levels of dissolved nitrates, phosphorus and oxygen, this currently stands at around 17 percent.

Although China’s surface water quality improved in 2018, many areas in the northeast such as Liao and Songhua were found to be even more polluted than in 2017, according to Reuters.

For regional focused policies, the Yangtze River has also remained a target for China’s protection and rehabilitation programme. A plan has set out to control industrial and agricultural pollution while improving investment and compensation schemes.

China assigns more funds to improve water quality as 2020 deadline looms

Zhang Bo, director of China’s department of water environment treatment was quoted by CGTN as saying that “five of China’s seven tough battles against environmental pollution are water related”.

If confirmed, the additional RMB30 billion would inevitably drive the development and adoption of water technologies in the Chinese market.

At the end of last year a jointly developed report by the World and Development Research Center of China’s State Council called for improved regulations to strengthen public private partnerships in the country.