BEIJING: Three national government bodies made public a guideline on synergizing sewage treatment and carbon emission control, vowing to build 100 exemplary low-carbon sewage treatment plants by 2025.
The country also aims to raise the utilization rate of recycled water to over 25 percent in all prefecture-level cities that suffer water scarcity by that time, according to a document issued by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
The guideline details a series of measures to enhance energy efficiency and bolster greenhouse gas control in the sewage disposal sector. The country, for instance, will optimize the layout of sewage treatment plants to avoid lengthy transportation of wastewater for disposal, it said.
More underground sewage treatment plants will be built in cities with scarce land resources, it notes.
The spaces above such facilities will be used to build parks so as to improve the urban living environment and increase carbon sink capacity. It also vows to accelerate the phasing out of sewage treatment facilities with low energy efficiency while promoting the application of energy-efficient ones.
China will also make efforts to tap the application of heat pumps in sewage treatment plants to provide air conditioning for nearby communities, it said. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
