Sewer systems leave many newly built wastewater treatment plants with idle capacity.
Despite the buildup of sewage treatment facilities around the country over this decade, insufficient sewer systems are gumming up the works for China’s wastewater treatment plants.
In bigger cities, officials have long favored public works projects that people can see – such as wastewater treatment plants – over projects people can’t see – such as sewer pipes, according to the Economic Information Daily report.
In cities, the main sewer lines generally run along the major roadways, so they don’t have any major problems channeling wastewater, Zhang said.
The real problem is with the network of smaller pipes that reach across the city, according to Zhang.
That translates to three problems for every kilometer of sewer pipeline.
However, because the state of sewer systems in rural areas is often worse than in cities, much of that new sewer treatment capacity ends up idle, the Economic Information Daily report said.
Planned improvements China plans to spend 564.4 billion yuan ($81.79 billion) on the country’s sewer systems and wastewater treatment facilities during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), according to the Economic Information Daily report.
The government aims to increase newly added capacity to treat sludge with organic detoxification methods by 160.7 percent to 60,100 tons per day during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), according to the Economic Information Daily report.
It also plans to increase the amount of recycled wastewater by 56.7 percent to 15.05 million cubic meters per day.