Present Development Trend of China's Municipal Sewage Treatment
Sector

The years before 2020 will be the period with the accelerated
development of urbanization in China. According to the
experience in other countries, the biggest problem in this
period will be pollution to the municipal environment. The
municipal sewage treatment, in particular, can not meet the
needs in the development of cities in China. The municipal
environment will be aggravated fast, producing serious impacts
on the ecological environment and the sound economic
development.
   Waste water emitted from the petroleum and chemical industry
including petroleum, chemical, papermaking and dyeing/printing
sectors accounts for 50% of the total municipal sewage emission
today. The petroleum and chemical industry is not only a major
water consumer but also a major producer of municipal sewage.
To ensure a remarkable improvement of the environment in large
and medium cities, it is necessary for China to strengthen the
construction and the effective utilization of treatment
facilities for municipal sewage including waste water in the
petroleum and chemical industry.

  1   Present development status of
the municipal sewage treatment sector

Municipal sewage is a collective name of the sewage emitted into
municipal sewage discharging systems from cities and their
suburbs. It includes domestic sewage, industrial waste water,
atmospheric precipitation (rainfall and snowfall) runoff and
other types of refuse water. Main sources include sewage
generated in the life of urban residents, waste water formed in
the production of industrial enterprises, municipal atmospheric
precipitation and some contaminated surface water.
   The investment has been increased year by year. The
investment in the municipal sewage treatment sector including
sewage treatment plants and water drainage networks increased
from RMB14.93 billion in 2000 to RMB36.8 billion in 2005 with
an average annual growth of 19.77%.
    The construction has been accelerated: With the increase of
the investment, the construction of sewage treatment plants and
water drainage networks has been accelerated. The length of
municipal water drainage pipelines was increased by 99 000 km
from 2000 to 2005 with an average annual growth of 19 800 km.
By contrast the average annual growth was 6 200 km from 1995 to
2000. The number of municipal sewage treatment plants increased
by 364 with an average annual growth of 72.8 during 2000-2005.
The average annual growth was 57.2 from 1995 to 2000.
   The treatment ability is upgrading stably: With the
accelerated construction of municipal sewage treatment plants
and municipal sewage drainage networks, the municipal sewage
treatment ability has been stably upgrading. The municipal
sewage treatment ability reached 57.23 million m3/d in 2005, an
increase of 35.65 million m3/d over the treatment ability of
21.58 million m3/d in 2000. The municipal sewage treatment rate
reached 51.99%, an increase of 17.74 percentage points over the
rate of 34.25% in 2000.

  2   Problems in the municipal
sewage treatment sector

    (1) The investment is inadequate

The investment took place in the municipal sewage treatment
sector was RMB22.45 billion in 2001 and increased to RMB36.8
billion in 2005. The annual average growth was only 13.2%, much
lower than the annual average growth of the investment in
municipal public facilities. The proportion of the investment
put in the municipal sewage treatment sector in the total
investment in municipal public facilities also dropped from 9.5%
in 2001 to 6.6% in 2005. (See Fig. 1) The investment in the
municipal sewage treatment sector falls far behind of the needs
in the rapid development of cities.

    (2) The sewage treatment rate is relatively low

In spite of a constant increase in recent years, the sewage
treatment rate in most cities is relatively low. 278 of 661
cities in China still have no sewage treatment plants and can
not conduct centralized treatment of municipal sewage. By the
end of 2005 the municipal sewage treatment rate was only 51.99%.
The rate of centralized treatment in sewage treatment plants was
only 39.36%, much lower than the rate of over 90% in advanced
countries. Due to inadequate sewage treatment facilities and low
sewage treatment rate, municipal sewage is directly emitted into
water system, causing serious pollution to the environment.
Besides, due to high treatment expenses, slurry after the sewage
treatment is not well disposed, also causing a huge impact on
the environment.

    (3) There is a big gap in the treatment level between
different regions

The gap in the sewage treatment level between different regions
is quite big. The municipal sewage treatment rate in the eastern
region is much higher than the western region. The municipal
sewage treatment rate in the eastern region reached 58.14% in
2005 whereas the rate was only 42.44% in the western region. The
municipal sewage treatment rate in advanced provinces and
municipalities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Jiangsu reaches
more than 70%, close to the level in advanced countries. The
municipal sewage treatment rate in underdeveloped areas in the
western region such as Guizhou and Qinghai is less than 30%.

    (4) The operation rate of sewage treatment facilities is not
high

In addition to the inadequacy in municipal sewage treatment
facilities, the utilization rate of existing facilities is also
relatively low. In previous years the construction of municipal
public facilities only highlighted the construction of
treatment plants and often neglected the construction of sewage
drainage networks. As a result some sewage treatment plants
could not make full-load operation and the utilization rate of
sewage treatment facilities is not high. The sewage treatment
capacity of municipal sewage treatment plants reached 20.89
billion t/a in 2005, but due to factors such as inadequate sewage
drainage networks, the actual sewage treatment amount was 14.15
billion tons and the operation rate of sewage treatment
facilities was only 67.7%. Great quantities of facilities are
laid idle, causing a huge waste.
   
    (5) The utilization rate of regenerated water is low

Regenerated water refers to water that reaches certain water
quality standard after regeneration process treatment, meets
the requirements of some application functions and can be
usefully applied.
   The reuse amount of municipal sewage after regeneration was
1.95 billion m3 in 2005, only accounting for 5.4% of the 36.0
billion m3 of sewage emission amount. The regeneration and reuse
rate of municipal sewage in China is only around a quarter of
the rate in advanced countries.

    (6) The pricing policy is not complete

The pricing policy of municipal sewage treatment in China is not
complete and can not guarantee the normal operation of municipal
sewage treatment plants. The fee for municipal sewage water
treatment is mostly on the low side. Based on the survey made
to the sewage treatment fee charging residents in 180 cities in
2005, residents in cities were charged by RMB0.12-1.35 per m3.
Residents in 77 cities were charged for sewage treatment fee of