Capital plans to accelerate water improvement efforts

Beijing is seeking to accelerate better water resources management, with comprehensive efforts including preferential policies, more financial support and advanced technologies.

The capital has adopted new compensation rules. The rules, which took effect on Jan 1, require a district or county government to pay the downstream cost of cleaning up dirty water.

Eighty-three river sections in different districts and counties are being monitored in Beijing.

Compensation is a good way of using economic means to encourage local districts to take measures to protect water quality, said Huang Bin, who researches water and ecological development at the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau.

Feng Huisheng, deputy head of the bureau, said in an interview last month with Qianlong.com, a Beijing news website, that in the first quarter, compensation paid reached 330 million yuan ($53.2 million), of which 140 million yuan was from the municipal government to support water pollution efforts.

Districts have had more incentive to protect the rivers running through their areas since the rules took effect, Feng said.

In addition, the city increased its sewage discharge fees beginning in January last year - another way to control water pollutants because the cost is passed on to the polluters.

For example, in November, a food processing company in Fengtai district was found discharging sewage with excessive chemical oxygen demand, a major water pollutant.

The district environmental watchdog imposed a fine of more than 3.9 million yuan in April, the largest penalty in Beijing for sewage discharge. The company solved the problem quickly after being punished.

As a megacity, Beijing has confronted challenges in water protection because of its growing population, increasing sewage, frequent droughts and lack of water resources. But the capital has witnessed successes, including comprehensive efforts such as the new compensation system.

The proportion of water quality at the second and third levels - water than can be made safe for drinking - increased to 46.9 percent last year, up from 36.4 percent in 2002, the bureau said.

Moreover, all underground water met national quality standards last year, the bureau said, adding that it has set up a monitoring network with 1,182 stations. The monitoring helps to provide a big picture of what's going on with underground resources.

"With strict checks on water pollution emissions, we will undertake more efforts to recycle domestic sewage," said the bureau's Huang - including as much as 90 percent of the wastewater from households.

By the end of next year, Beijing will be able to process 6.26 tons of wastewater every day, meaning that 90 percent of the wastewater is dealt with properly, Huang said, adding that the city is drafting an action plan on water pollution.

(China Daily 06/05/2015 page7)