China spent $100 billion on water clean-up projects in H1

Almaty. August 25. Silkroadnews – China spent $100 billion on water clean-up projects in H1, People’s Daily reported.
According to the agency, “China launched nearly 8,000 water clean-up projects in the first half of 2017 with projected total investment of 667.4 billion yuan ($100 billion). The projects were devised as part of a 2015 action plan to treat and prevent water pollution, and cover 325 contaminated surface water sites across the country”.
It is noted that inspection revealed a total of 343 contaminated sites, i.e. 95% of water basins meet water quality standards.
1,762 companies of China have been reported to switch to more effective methods of industrial waters cleaning, accounting for 84.6% of all companies in need of treatment facilities modernization.
Besides, China has also changed 75,000 underground oil storage tanks to two-layer tanks or added seepage prevention measures.
The report says in 2015 China promised to significantly improve the state of waters and stop the discharge of untreated sewage into water basins in environmentally polluting sectors such as mining, steel production, textiles, printing and oil refining.
This month, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection stated that the overall water quality had improved in the first half of 2017, although in some regions there has been some deterioration observed in this period.
As the publication explains, China grades water quality in six categories, with the lowest “below grade 5” considered unsuitable even for industrial or irrigation purposes and described as “black and stinky” water. Of the 2,100 “black and stinky” sites, 44.1% completed water purification projects in the first half of the year, with Hebei, Shanxi, Liaoning and Anhui staying behind the schedule.
Reportedly, to protect rural water supply, China has also allocated 636,000 square kilometers of land prohibited for livestock farming and closed 213,000 livestock and poultry farms in the first six months.
The ministry also reported that 809 new wastewater treatment facilities were built in the first half of the year, but the regions of Tianjin, Jiangxi, Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Xinjiang, Hubei and Guangdong were behind schedule.
On Wednesday China said it has already appointed 200,000 inspectors throughout the country as part of a new system aimed at increasing the accountability of local officials in improving water quality and reducing water pollution.