According to a Ministry of Construction notice circulated on
October 10, 297 cities had not established sewage treatment plants
by the end of this June.
Of them, 63 were above prefecture level, including eight with
populations of more than 500,000.
So far, 708 sewage treatment plants have been established in 661
cities with a capacity of 49.12 million cubic meters per day, twice
that in 2000. The annual amount treated is now 16.28 billion cubic
meters, up 43 percent on the year 2000. Of all urban sewage, 45.7
percent is treated.
But development is regionally unbalanced with the eastern region
doing better than northeastern and western regions.
The notice said some established plants, beyond their trial
operation periods, could not operate effectively due to ineffective
administration, with some in the provinces of Shanxi
and Gansu,
as well as Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region, charging low or no fees for sewage
treatment.
In other areas construction of sewage pipes lagged behind that
of plants and funds to complete their development were not
guaranteed. Some plants were operating only partially because they
had been designed unnecessarily large compared to actual
demand.
The ministry asked the cities involved to start dealing with
these problems, and said it would inspect them at an unspecified
later date.
(China.org.cn by Li Shen, October 16, 2005)