A brief history of sewage treatment industry and the status quo of water pollution treatment in China

Since the rapid development stage entered the 21st century, the state has comprehensively strengthened the control of water pollution. In 2002, the first urban sewage treatment plant pollutant discharge standard (GB18918) was introduced, and the implementation of the standard has effectively promoted the rapid development of domestic urban sewage treatment industry. At the same time, the state has successively listed the Huaihe River, Haihe River, Liaohe River, Taihu Lake, Chaohu Lake, Dianchi Lake (three rivers and three lakes), the Songhua River basin, the Three Gorges Reservoir area and upstream (one river and one reservoir), as well as the South-to-North water diversion water source and along the river basin as the national key water pollution control areas, and sewage treatment plants in these basins have been rapidly constructed. On the other hand, the state began to implement the "energy conservation and emission reduction" strategy during the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, proposing to reduce the total chemical oxygen demand (COD) emissions by 10% at the end of the "tenth Five-Year Plan", and implement the emission reduction targets at various levels to provinces, cities and counties. In order to complete the emission reduction targets issued by the state, various places have taken measures to accelerate the construction of sewage treatment plants, and the national sewage treatment has entered a state of rapid development. By the end of 2010, a total of 2,842 urban sewage treatment plants had been built in cities and counties across the country, with a total treatment capacity of 128 million cubic meters per day. Sewage treatment plants have been built in Chengguan towns in 1,034 counties, accounting for 63.2 percent of the total number of counties, and 16 provinces (autonomous regions or municipalities directly under the Central government) have achieved the goal of "building sewage treatment plants in every county (city)." In 2010, the actual total sewage treatment capacity of the country was 34.37 billion cubic meters, with an average daily treatment capacity of 101 million cubic meters, and a load rate of 78.78%. Annual COD reduction of 9.21 million tons, BOD reduction of 3.95 million tons, ammonia nitrogen reduction of 704,000 tons, total nitrogen reduction of 576,000 tons, total phosphorus reduction of 105,000 tons, producing huge environmental benefits. During the 11th Five-Year Plan period, China's sewage treatment capacity increased at an average rate of more than 20%, creating the world's fastest construction speed of sewage treatment. Since the 18th National Congress, the construction of ecological civilization has been raised to an unprecedented political height, which has promoted the development of China's environmental policy to a new level. In order to effectively increase the prevention and control of water pollution and ensure national water security, a number of policies and regulations have been issued. In 2014, the "strictest Environmental Protection Law" was enacted. In 2015, the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee deliberated and adopted the Action Plan for Water Pollution Prevention and Control, referred to as the "Water Ten"; In 2016, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee deliberated and adopted the Outline of the Plan for the Development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, making ecological protection of the Yangtze River a national strategic priority.  In April 2019, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the Three-year Action Plan for Improving the Quality and Efficiency of Urban Sewage Treatment (2019-2021).

1. The annual discharge of sewage has increased in recent years, the total discharge of sewage in China has continued to grow. In 2014, China's annual discharge of urban sewage was 44.534 billion square meters, which increased to 52.12 billion square meters in 2018.

2, "Increase in the number of sewage treatment plants At present, after the discharge of industrial wastewater in China, it basically enters the urban sewage pipeline and is treated in the urban sewage treatment plant. According to the 2018 Statistical Yearbook of Urban Construction, the number of sewage treatment plants in 2014 was 1,807, the number of sewage treatment plants exceeded 2,000 in 2016, and the number of sewage treatment plants further increased to 2,321 in 2018.

3, sewage treatment plant treatment capacity to improve the "12th Five-Year" since, China clearly energy conservation and environmental protection industry as a strategic emerging industry, the government has intensively introduced various environmental protection policies (such as "water ten"), China's sewage treatment scale has a certain scale, water pollution treatment capacity effect is significant. China's sewage treatment capacity has been strengthened continuously. In 2014, the treatment capacity of China's sewage treatment plants was 130.87 million cubic meters/day, and in 2018, the treatment capacity was increased to 168.81 million cubic meters/day. In 2014, the annual sewage treatment capacity was 40.162 billion cubic meters, and in 2018, it approached 50 billion cubic meters. At present, China's water treatment has formed a complete industrial chain, formed a mature sewage treatment process, and the sewage treatment rate continues to improve. The sewage treatment rate reached 90.18% in 2014 and 95.49% in 2018. With the progress of sewage treatment technology, it is expected that China's sewage treatment rate will be further improved.