时间：2022-09-30 03:07:22
After the Project of Preventing and Controlling Air Pollution （commonly known as “Ten Rules about Air Pollution”， China initiated another grand project against the pollution. This time the target is water.
The Project of Preventing and Controlling Water Pollution （“Ten Rules about Water Pollution”）， which is to be fully implemented soon， will call for the investment totaling 2 trillion yuan， telling the upcoming huge market.
On June 4， Li Ganjie， China’s Vice Minister of Environmental Protection， said in the press conference of State Council that the Ministry of Environmental Protection is speeding up the issuance of the “Ten Rules about Water Pollution” to stage a good fight against the water pollution.
Focus on Two Ends
The “Ten Rules about Water Pollution” puts forward the substantial requirements about the principles， goals and tasks of the protection of water environment and handling the problems. According to an insider from the Ministry of Environmental Protection， the main goals are none other than speeding up the improvement of the water quality， guaranteeing the water safety， keeping the healthy aquatic ecological system.
It is known that the Ministry of Environmental Protection started the compilation of the “Ten Rules about Water Pollution） last year. The insider said that the document was previously called the “Water Project” and got its current name for a match with the similar rules against air pollution. The Ministry of Environmental Protection served as the leading unit in compiling the file and providing technical support.
By the beginning of this year， the team of compiling the“Ten Rules about Water Pollution” had already held several seminars and meetings. They drafted for the advices from each province， the departments of the State Council and other relevant institutes.
On February 13， the Ministry of Environmental Protection approved the initial version of the Ten Rules about Water Pollution”. In April and May， the team of compilation， led by Zhao Yingmin， head of Pollution Prevention Department at the Ministry of Envrionmental Protection， went to Beijing and Zhejiang to have on-the-spot investigations into the water disposal. Some of the local projects， such as the “disposal of five kinds of water together” in Jinhua， Zhejiang， raised their great interest.
“The water environment in the whole country is still in a dangerous situation as there are still many emergency cases threatening the drinking water safety. In these years， there were a dozen of cases every year. For example， five cases happened in the first five months of this year，” said Li Ganjie on June 4.
The survey made by the Ministry of Environmental Protection showed the quality of surface water， especially the ten major drainage basins， got great improvement in recent years. Among the waters in the ten major drainage basins， 71.7% had the quality better than the third level； 19.3% set higher than the fourth and fifth level. Only 9% of the waters had the worst water quality. The result was better than the one in 2011 and 2012.
In spite of the improvement， the situation of the water environment in China is still very grim， said Li Ganjie. The grimness is shown in three aspects：
One： the Worse-than-Fifth-Level water， which refers to the water that was severely polluted， still has a high proportion in China. In some drainage basins， the proportion is even higher than the 9% national average level. In the Haihe basin， for example， the most polluted water accounts for 39.1% of the entire water.
Two： serious pollution can be found in some parts of rivers flowing through cities and towns and in the ponds in the suburban area. Most of them are polluted by organics， leading to the black and odorous waters. This has affected many citizens， been placed under heavy public scrutiny and raised many complaints.
Three： there are still many emergency cases threatening the drinking water safety.
One of the major problems that stand in the way of further improvement of water quality is the gap between the standards about pollutants in the discharged water and the one for the surface water quality. This could lead to the discharge of“qualified” waste water， further harming the water quality.
“Many substances that are considered to be pollutants are not removed from the lists of elements allowed to be discharged into the water. With the out-of-date standards， the waste water that has gone through the traditional water disposal process is still the worst polluted water. If this water is discharged into the environment without self-cleaning ability， it will severely pollute the water， leading to the strange situation featuring ‘more disposals， more pollutions’，” said Dai Richeng， general manager of a water disposal company in Tianjin.
Another group of environmental protection data shows that that 31% of water in ten major drainage basins and 39% in the 62 major fresh lakes in China cannot meet the standard of drinking water and poses a great damage to the life， production and health of people.
According to Li Ganjie， the core of the “Ten Rules about Water Pollution” is to “control the two ends while taking care of the in-between part”. The two ends respectively refer to： a）， protection of the water quality of the source of drinking water and some waters with high quality， and b）， reduction or even elimination of the seriously-polluted waters， especially the black and odorous waters that have affected a vast of people. The disposal of waters between the two ends， which is not seriously polluted but definitely not suitable for drinking water， will be driven by the measures for the two extremities.
Reduction in Total Volume
In recent years， the progress in the industrialization and modernization of China is accompanied with the increase in the discharge of waste water. From 2001 to 2012， the total volume of discharged water in China increased from 43.3 billion tons to 68.5 billion tons. In another word， the volume of discharged waste water increased by 2.1 billion tons every year with the 4.3% annual compound growth rate.
The major sources of water pollutants are the industry， agriculture and urban life. The increase in the discharge of waste water from urban life is the main reason to the increase of the volume of discharged waste water in China.
The data from the Ministry of Environmental Protection shows that the proportion of the waste water from urban life in the total volume of discharged waste water increased from 53.2% in 2001 to 67.6% in 2012. The total volume of waste water from urban life increased by 1.94 billion tons annually from 2001 to 2012， taking 92.2% of the annual increase in the volume of discharged waste water.
Among all three sources， the waste water from industry boasts the small volume， small amount of pollutants. However， this kind of waste water contains multiple kinds of pollutants， making it hard to be handled. The agricultural waste water features the great volume. However， only 10% of the agricultural waste water was placed under the disposal process as of 2010. The project of handling the waste water from agriculture is still in its initial period.
The waste water from urban life is an opposite to the waste water from industry. The volume is big yet there are a few categories of pollutants. Therefore， it is easier to be handled and right now there are a lot of relevant technologies present.
Qu Qing， Vice Minister of Environmental Protection， said in February that the prevention and control of water pollution were confronted with three major problems： the pollution in the underground river has not been efficiently controlled； some rivers， especially the ones in rural areas， are still severely polluted； and there are many defects in the management of water environment.
A report based on a survey into the sources of drinking water in Beijing， Tianjin and Hebei shows that 2/3 of the drinking water for Beijing comes from the underground， while there are hundreds of thousand people in Tianjin are drinking the underground water. However， most of the underground water in North China is exposed and vulnerable to the pollutants.
Take Beijing for example： the 19 designated collective sources of drinking water in this city covers 13.2 million people， accounting for 2/3 of the number of permanent residents in this city. There are still one third of Beijing people whose drinking water comes from the sources beyond the control of environmental protection department.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection also showed through a group of data that the China sees 24 million tons of annual discharge of chemical oxygen demand and 2.45 million tons of ammonia nitrogen. “The discharge is much larger than the capacity of the environment，” said Qu Qing.
Meng Wei， director of China Institute of Environmental Science， said that the waters in China can only bear 7.409 million tons of chemical oxygen demand， less than one third of the annual discharge at this moment.
Therefore， the Ministry of Environmental Protection forecasts that the annual discharge must be reduced at least by 30%-50% before the radical changes to the water environment in China.
As for the effect of handling water pollution， Qu Qing believes that the measures， once fully implemented， can be rewarded with the good results. He made an example of the“freshwater jellyfish”， which went extinct in Songhua River but has returned by now， to show the achievements of water disposal in Songhua River. The river in Northeast China extends 1900 kilometers long and flows past Jilin， Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang. On November 13， 2005， an explosion happened to a benzene plant in Jilin， pouring a large amount of pollutants into the river.
In the following five years， China invested 7.84 billion yuan in total on the disposal of the pollutants. According to the project， there are 222 projects at disposal which need the investment of 13.4 billion yuan in total.
“The water in Songhua River went through great changes. I saw the freshwater jellyfish last year. They are beautiful and have been away from Songhua River for years. The jellyfish has high requirements for the water quality. Their appearance is a solid proof for the betterment of the water quality，” Qu Qing said.
The Initiation of 2-Trillion Project
According to the Ministry of Environmental Protection，the total spending on implementing the “Ten Rules about Water Pollution” exceeded two trillion yuan. The analysts with CITIC Securities believe that the implementation of the“Ten Rules about Water Pollution” would further enhance the upgrading and reconstructing the water disposal facilities. If the goal is set to finish the water disposal facilities in key areas within three years， the annual investment might reach 10.8 billion yuan based on the cost of 525 yuan/ton to handle the waste water as shown in the “12th Five-Year Plan”.
Qu Jiuhui， a fellow with the Ecological Research Center at Chinese Academy of Science， said that the quality of water discharged from waste water disposal facilities needed to be improved from A- to A+ as required by the Plan of Building Facilities for the Disposal and Recycling of Urban Waste Water in the 12th Five-Year Plan.
After the implementation of the “Ten Rules about Water Pollution”， the industry of water disposal facilities will be greeted with unprecedented opportunities. For example， the sewage pump industry is expected to keep a 20% growth rate annually. This year， Zhejiang Province initiated the projects of handling waste water， preventing flood， draining urban flood， maintaining the water supply and promoting the water saving. There are 125 projects set up in 2014 with the total investment of 468 billion yuan. All these projects have a high demand for the sewage pumps.
The analysts from CITIC Securities said that the sludge treatment， the utility of reclaimed water， and the disposal of organic chemicals will step into the period of fast development after the implementation of “Ten Rules about Water Pollution”.
Beijing-based Sound Group is engaged in the environmental protection. Its board chairman Wen Yibo said recently that “the company had a big space for improvement and will make the investment amounting to hundreds of billion yuan.”
Wen Yibo believes that the small towns will become the key markets for the disposal of waste water as they need to build net pipe networks or upgrade old one， add new water disposal facilities and upgrade the unqualified devices， build collective water disposal plants and scattered device. As required by the Chinese central government， all counties and key towns in China need to have certain power to handle 85% of the waste water （75% for towns）.
With that great potential， Sound Group is expected to have the revenue of 10 billion yuan from its environmental protection business. In the next year， the company’s environmental protection sector is to have the revenue of 13-15 billion yuan.
The source from Asian Development Bank said that China’s determination to handle the water pollution has also drawn the attention of international consortiums. Some foreign companies and consortiums have already found themselves in this sector.
At the end of last year， Asian Development Bank and Beijing Enterprises Water Group Limited announced in Beijing that they will together develop the high-standard water disposal projects in China to make the disposed waste water able to be reused in the industrial cooling and urban environment. The project is expected to be able to handle 600 million tons of waste water annually by 219 and the disposed waste water is to be used for industrial cooling and urban irrigation.
The Chinese government is also going to increase the standard for fees of waste water disposal and improve the range of items for charging. The disposal of sludge will be included into the cost.
“Presently， the disposal of pollution in China still follows the pattern that ‘those responsible for the pollution tackle the problem’， leaving the task of handling pollution at the disposal of the companies，” said Luo Jianhua， secretary-general of Chamber of Commerce of Environmental Protection of All China Federation of Commerce and Industry. Internationally， third-party companies are recruited to deal with the pollution problem， which is more efficient and reasonable it is a pattern that Chinese companies should adopt too.