Minmetals unit offers sponge city solutions for rainfall usage

WISDRI Engineering and Research Incorporation Ltd, a subsidiary of China Minmetals Corp, the country's biggest metals trader by revenue, said it will provide so-called sponge city solutions - the technology being rolled out in China to counter flooding - to more than 10 major cities including Nanning, Chongqing and Jinan in 2017.

As urbanization develops fast, the sponge city as an urban design concept has quickly gained attention from the public. Such a city is able to absorb, store for later use and recycle up to 70 percent of rainfall, effectively filtering out pollutants from rainwater and cutting the rainfall runoff that directly flows into drainage systems.

In 2014, there was flooding in 125 cities in China and it is believed that the rapid urbanization has made cities more vulnerable, so in late 2015, the government launched its sponge city program. The initiative integrates torrential rainfall into the urban water cycle, rather than letting it run away, as with the old approach to drainage techniques.