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Sectors and Themes Water Stories Country Water Actions People's Republic of China
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Country Water Action: People's Republic of China
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Comprehensive assessments—technical, environmental, financial, economic, social, and institutional feasibility—were carried out in the Hai River Basin in preparation for a project that would rid the river system of the pollution that has plagued it for years. Specifically, the planned Shandong Hai River Basin Pollution Control Project will expand and add water supply, wastewater treatment, and solid waste management facilities in nine cities and towns across four northern municipal regions of Shandong within the Hai River basin.
At the municipal level, six wastewater treatment facilities, one water supply facility, and four solid waste management facilities are proposed to control pollution and improve water quality. Two major industrial wastewater treatment facilities will treat effluents from two large paper mills in the cities of Dezhou and Liaocheng, which are major sources of pollution.
Institutional capacity-building measures for integrated wastewater management, solid waste management, and initiating policy reforms will also be identified to ensure that the new facilities bring lasting change to communities along the Hai River Basin.
The PRC is facing the demanding task of cleaning up and rehabilitating many of its water resources that have become heavily polluted, thereby threatening the country's economic and social development. A major pollutant has been the discharge of untreated septic tank effluents into rivers and canals. Garbage collection and disposal has been poorly organized. Rapid urban development, industrialization, and population density have led to heavily polluted rivers, canals, and open areas in cities that are not only a constant nuisance to the senses but also expose people to serious health risks, such as waterborne diseases.
Facing only worsening conditions, the PRC Government has taken progressive steps to halt and reverse the problem of water pollution. The country's Green Plan emphasizes wastewater management and pollution control in major rivers and tributaries.
In Shandong province, less than half of wastewater in secondary towns is collected and treated, and solid waste management has only recently started in some towns. Untreated waste is often discharged to inland rivers and canals. As a result, water quality in the tributaries to the Hai River is far below national and provincial targets, necessitating the formulation of strategies for implementing a pollution prevention and control plan for the Hai River and its expansive basin.
The comprehensive assessments for the Shandong Hai River Basin Pollution Control Project are critical knowledge pieces that inform how the larger proposed project should be designed to improve the capacity of government institutions and agencies, update water legislation, attract investments, and reform tariff structures.
Five of the project's key activities involved:
Just as the project focuses on environmental improvements, health benefits, and job creation for poverty reduction, the ADB Water for All policy calls for strengthening the legal and regulatory framework to make these environmental changes possible. The project design is aligned with the water policy's emphasis on integrated water and wastewater management, tariff reform, and cleaner technologies.
The preparatory comprehensive assessment for the project, with its attention to the role of policy, sector assessments, and tariffs in sustainable water conservation, resource management, and service delivery, was analyzed against ADB water policy action items in a 2005 quantitative study of ADB's water loans and grants, and was rated "exemplary."
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