China will invest up to 300
billion yuan (US37.5 billion) in urban sewage treatment and recycling during the
11th five-year plan (2006-2010) period, a senior official with the Ministry of
Construction has said.
Zhang Yue, deputy head of the ministry's urban construction department, told
Xinhua that China will further open its water sector to foreign and private
capitals to raise the necessary funds.
In a document released last December, the Chinese government said by 2010, 70
percent of the waste water in Chinese cities mustbe treated before being
discharged into the environment.
Zhang said the Ministry of Construction has in collaboration with the
National Development and Reform Commission and the State Environmental
Protection Administration drafted a plan for urban sewage treatment and
recycling between 2006 and 2010. The plan is expected to be approved by the
State Council soon, he said.
According to the plan, major cities must have 80 percent of their sewage
treated by 2010. For medium and small cities, the rate should be between 60 to
70 percent.
Sewage treatment facilities have grown in China over the past five years and
the country's sewage processing capacity has tripled since 2001. But only 60
percent of the capacity is currently used, due to a substandard sewage
collecting network. Zhang said the expansion of the sewage collecting network
will be a major task in the future.
Government will step up efforts to make sewage treatment and recycling more
profitable and sustainable, Zhang said, adding thatthe policy of charging
polluters for sewage treatment will be adopted in more cities.
It is believed that such a policy will make sewage treatment more attractive
to non-government investors.
China began the reform of its urban water service system in 2000, focusing on
the breakup of the state monopoly. So far about 200 cities have taken solid
measures to achieve the goal, according to Zhang.
Xu Zongwei, another official with the construction ministry, has said that
the urban utility service is actually among the mostprofitable industries.
Veolia, a French giant in the water industry, has already invested in 18
water projects in 16 Chinese cities, including a waste water treatment plant in
Beijing, said Huang Xiaojun, Veolia's vice-president for China
operations.