The 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010)

To achieve the COD target, MEP states that it will:

• Accelerate the construction of urban sewage treatment facilities and the development of recycling & reuse projects.
• By 2010, all cities in China must have sewage treatment facilities, with at least 70% of urban sewage being treated.
• Total capacity in urban sewage treatment across China to reach 100 million tonnes per day.
• Strengthen the monitoring and supervision of sewage treatment plants.
• Ensure the actual treatment load of sewage treatment facilities after operation, that is, no less than 60% of the designed capacity within one year and no less than 75% of the designed capacity within 3 years.
• Implement the discharge standard for water pollutants and the total amount control system and accelerate the application of the pollutant discharge licensing system.
• Focus on up-to-the-standard discharges and a total reduction of COD in the industrial effluent of major enterprises under the national pollution control program. These discharges account for 65% of total industrial wastewater of China.
• Accelerate the phasing out of heavy polluting enterprises not in line with national industrial policy, such as small paper-making, chemical, tannery, printing and dyeing and brewery enterprises.
• Strengthen water conservation by industries, develop limits for effluent discharge standards for high water consumption industries and raise the reuse rate of industrial water.
• Focus on pollution control in paper-making, brewery, chemicals, textile and printing & dyeing industries.
• In key industries such as iron and steel, power, chemicals and coal, replicate the practice of recycling and reuse of wastewater to achieve minimum or zero discharge of wastewater.

The ability to meet the COD reduction target will be a factor in government officials’ performance evaluations.

• Ban all direct wastewater outlets in Grade I protected areas for drinking water sources.
• Set up warning signs and close all direct pollutant discharge outlets within Grade II protected areas.
• Restrict the development of heavily polluting enterprises such as chemicals, paper-making and printing and dyeing, upstream from areas protected for drinking water.
• Improve the monitoring and management system for drinking water source areas; carry out analysis of water quality with disclosure of the water environment.

• Carry out the target responsibility system for watershed pollution control.
• Speed up the establishment of eco-compensation mechanism.
• Focusing on chemical enterprises along rivers, investigate all industrial pollution sources that discharge toxic or hazardous substances and set up a regular reporting system for monitored water quality.
• Urge relevant enterprises to improve pollution control facilities and accident prevention measures in order to avoid hidden pollution accidents.
• Implement water pollution prevention and control projects in key river basins that includes the prevention and control of key industrial pollution sources and control in upstream areas of the drinking water source.
• Establish a construction, operation and consultation service for pollution treatment facilities that will focus on promoting the commercialisation of environmental facilities such as urban sewage treatment plants with scaled treatment of industrial effluent.

Urban wastewater treatment projects to include:

• the addition of 45 million t/d capacity;
• reform and improve existing wastewater treatment plants and sewer pipelines;
• sludge disposal facilities; and
• use of treated waste-water.

Priority areas to include:

• Development of technologies ensuring drinking water safety and key supporting technologies as well as water pollution control at the watershed (regional) level and demonstration projects, etc.
• Prevention and control of eutrophication, reuse of wastewater, removal of organic substances and microbes in drinking water, biological removal of nitrogen and phosphorus in high-load wastewater, high-efficiency anaerobic and aerobic biological treatment and treatment of wastewater with high salinity and toxic organic compounds.

Comprehensive utilisation of resources: recycling and reuse of waste; utilisation of neutralised water, brackish water and desalinised water; and water conservation by high-efficiency cooling.

• Government investment to include the construction of environmental infrastructure, integrated control of key watersheds, rural pollution treatment and building of environmental supervision capacity. The investment will be dominated by local government at all levels with the support of the central government, as appropriate.
• With active adoption of the market mechanism and absorption of social investment, government aims to create a diversified input situation. It is expected that a total of RMB 75 billion in pollution emission fees will be collected during the “11th Five-Year Plan” period, which will be used for pollution control. With subsidy or interest discount, the authority aims to attract banks to environmental protection projects.
• Enterprises will be responsible for the treatment of industrial pollution according to “polluter pays” principle.

• Explore an environmental taxation system and employ tax levers to facilitate development of a resource saving and an environmentally responsible society.
• Improve credit policies and encourage banks, especially policy banks, to provide loans to environmental infrastructure construction projects and corporate pollution control projects with repaying ability.
• Explore the establishment of environmental liability insurance and environmental venture investment.
• Expand the channels for using foreign capital and keep striving for assistance and favorable loans from international organisations and foreign governments.

• Facilitate disclosure of corporate environmental information according to law.
• All listed companies should be assessed on their environmental performance and issue a bulletin on their environmental information.
• Improve the mechanisms for public participation in environmental protection.
• Improve the rules and procedures for public participation, listen to public comments by means of hearings, review meetings and public announcements, accept public supervision and carry out democratic decision making.