The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed a $300 million facility agreement with Sound Global to improve rural wastewater management using innovative technologies across the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Using the new technology, the project aims to treat 240,000 tons of wastewater per day in 100 townships by 2017.
The enormous volume of wastewater generated by the PRC’s rural areas – home to a half of the country’s population – poses a major environmental threat to the country’s rivers, lakes, and underground aquifers.
Outside of the major city areas, wastewater treatment facilities and sewage pipelines are scarce. Less than 20% of wastewater generated by rural areas is treated.
With the majority of untreated wastewater flowing directly back into the local surface water, the quality of the local water sources have greatly deteriorated over time, often exceeding their water quality limits.
This has a great sanitation impact on downstream local populations who depend on these local water sources for their water supply, according to ADB.
Hisaka Kimura, head of private sector infrastructure finance at ADB’s East Asia unit said: “By building and operating wastewater treatment plants with small modular automatic rapid technologies, smart solutions can be provided for small communities in rural areas which currently do not have wastewater treatment infrastructure.”
###
Funding ‘Water for All’ across Asia Over 170 million people now have access to water and sanitation thanks to support from the Asian Development Bank. Yet how much of a priority is water for the bank's $17.5 billion budget compared to other urgent infrastructure requirements, such as schools and roads? Monty LeFrance investigates…
