Guangzhou should put recycled water to better and more extensive
use and save more fresh water to overcome water shortages and
reduce salt tides, a deputy to the city's legislature has
suggested.
In a submission to the city's people's congress, which ended on
Tuesday, a deputy from Guangzhou's Yuexiu District, Liu Lianxiang,
said the south China city was in a good position to optimize the
use of recycled and conserved fresh water.
It will help the city where water is in short supply, especially
during winter, to reduce salt tides that have been plaguing it and
other cities in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region for the past few
years.
"Guangzhou is capable of disposing of 71.34 percent of its
residential and industrial sewage, and its daily capacity has
reached 1.83 million tons," Liu said.
So instead of pouring recycled water that comes out of
sewage-treatment plants into the Pearl River, the city authorities
can treat and use for it for several purposes, she said, especially
because the cost of such treatment is very low: 0.5 yuan (6 cents)
a ton.
At present, the city uses only about 10,000 cubic meters of
recycled water a day, primarily for watering plants, cleaning roads
and flushing toilets around its few sewage-treatment plants. But
about 5 million yuan (US$641,026) can be saved each year if such
water is put to optimum use, she said.
It's high time the city authorities work out a way to put such
water to wider use, and took serious steps to promote its use among
the public, she said.
She proposed that new key and heavy water-consuming projects be
made to install pipelines carrying recycled water.
(China Daily February 1, 2007)
