Major projects include cleaning some 20 rivers around the city, stopping the flow of sewage water from urban to rural areas and developing environment-friendly agriculture in Beijing’s rural regions.

Construction and renovation on some sewage plants will be given more priority in the next few years. With the establishment of a total of 16 such plants for urban areas, Beijing’s foul water processing capacity will reach 3.25 million tons per day and by the end of the year 2010, 90 percent of the drained water will be treated for further use when a number of sewage treatment plants are built in the suburban counties.

Beijing will also carry out maintenance projects on water reservoirs to stop water and soil erosion.

The city discharges some 2.45 million cubic meters of foul water every day, but only 42 percent could be treated. Water pollution and drainage has been troubling the city’s environment and economic development in recent years.

Beijing has implemented comprehensive treatment projects on several key water systems in the city in recent years, and four sewage plants are working now to process one million tons of sewage everyday.

It is expected that the overall water environment will take on a new look by the year 2010 with the coming of a total water treatment project.

(Xinhua 12/23/2000)