Surface water

China to boost unconventional water sources but a long way to go

Tuesday, 16 November 2021

China has committed to doubling the use of unconventional water sources by 2025 but the State Council has admitted there’s a long way to go on environmental protection.

Banking on the unconventional

China has announced a new five-year plan that includes doubling the use of “unconventional water” sources by 2025.

Four approaches will be used, including recycled municipal wastewater, seawater desalination, water reuse in the mining sector and also stormwater harvesting.

As part of the plans, the country could raise the rate of treated sewage by over 25 per cent by 2025.

As well as air, Shanghai has pledged to make its water cleaner. A report by Shanghai Daily, Shine, showed that from January to August of this year, the rate of surface water ranked "good" was 77.3 percent, an increase of 5.1 percent over the same period of last year.

“China aims to bring the proportion of good water quality in its coastal regions up to 79 per cent.”

This was attributed to the city preventing and controlling water pollution by maintaining four centralised water sources, including Qingcaosha, Chenhang,

Dongfengxisha and Jinze at Class III status since 2018.

A long way to go

Meanwhile, at the tail end of the recent COP26 negotiations, China’s State Council admitted there’s still a “long way to go” on environmental protection.

The Council said: “China aims to bring the proportion of good water quality in its coastal regions up to 79 per cent, to basically eliminate heavy polluted weather, to effectively control soil pollution risks and to significantly enhance the capability of treating solid waste and new pollutants.”

President Xi faced criticism for not attending the U.N. climate gathering in Scotland. Meanwhile, China and India were accused of weakening the COP26 group commitment by agreeing to “phase down” rather than “phase out” coal.