Doumen sewage treatment initiated

THE Jing’an Town Domestic Sewage Treatment Plant, Doumen’s first, came into operation last Tuesday. With a total investment of 65.63 million yuan ($9.38 million) and designed capacity of 25,000 cubic metres per day, the 37,629sqm sewage treatment plant includes a 6,900m pipe network.

Construction under BOT (build-operation-transfer) commenced in March 2007. Zhuhai Mingmen Water Treatment Co Ltd invested 42.21 million yuan ($6.03 million) and will transfer to the Doumen District government after commercial operation for 25 years, according to Ye Jianxun, director of the Doumen Environmental Protection Administration.

Domestic sewage in downtown Doumen areas will be collected in discharge pipelines and conveyed to the plant for physical and biochemical waste treatment before being discharged to the Huangyang River, Zhang Rongwu, an engineer, explained.

Doumen is working hard on construction of Xinqing Industrial Park Sewage Treatment Plant, Director Ye said. “It is just a beginning for wastewater treatment in Doumen District and there is a long way to go,” he added.

Around 80 per cent of domestic sewage can be treated in urban areas whereas treatment in the western regions of the city remained zero until the plant came into operation. Domestic sewage collection covers less than 20 per cent of the total in Doumen and Jinwan districts.

However, a capacity of 200,000 cubic metres of sewage treatment daily is required in the region during the 11th Five-Year Plan Period, an official at the municipal Water Authority pointed out. A plan shows that six more sewage treatment plants will have been built in Doumen and Jinwan districts by 2010. “The biggest problem is lack of funds,” the official said, adding, “It is almost impossible to rely solely on the financial appropriation from the government to reach the goal of 80 per cent in urban sewage treatment in three years.”

Some deputies to the municipal People’s Congress suggested that the city government grant the Water Supply Co a franchise to finance, construct and operate the water supply network, waterworks, discharge network and sewage treatment plants in the western region. Integrated water supply, discharge and sewage treatment will help optimize resources of the water industry and break the bottleneck of financial straits for sustained development in the region, experts point out.

Shenzhen Water Group (SZWG), the first water enterprise with integrated management of water supply and sewage treatment in the country, takes charge of over 90 per cent of water supply and 99 per cent of sewage treatment. Its subsidiary, Shenzhen Water Investment Co, has invested in 15 water projects in seven provinces. The group’s success in integrated management has relieved the government from heavy investment in water projects and provided a model for reforming state-owned water businesses, experts say.

(ZD News)