China Environmental News Digest: China develops technologies to control water pollution

BEIJING, April Xinhuanet -- Over the past three years, China has invested over one billion yuan in its research to develop technologies to control water pollution. Now the efforts have begun to be paid off: China has developed an array of technologies that can help solve heavy water pollution problems in the country.

water pollution control project is divided into five main aspects: technologies that are used to solve water pollution in lakes and restore their ecological environment, technologies used to improve water quality in cities, technologies to guarantee the safety of drinking water, and new technologies on biological treatment of water, and on forming waste water handling equipment into a complete set. The major achievement includes technologies can be used to improve overall aquatic environment at lake sources, and restore the ecological environment for lakes after they are heavily polluted. These technologies are regarded as key technologies in solving the lake pollution problem. The technologies are have been put to use in 11 cities including Wuhan and Suzhou, and different schemes made that can improve the water quality in these cities based on their specific situation.

research team on the water pollution control project said some technologies have begun to produce good results, and some have been used in handling the Songhuajiang River pollution incident that occurred last year. In future, these technologies will be applied in solving the water pollution problems in areas such as the Three Gorges dam, the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, Taihu Lake, and Huaihe River reaches.

big technology program was initiated in 2002. Chinese central government invested 350 million yuan for the project and another 700 million yuan was gathered from local governments and related social institutions. So far, applications for patents for over 400 technologies in the program have been filed, 14 sets of criteria have been made to control various kinds of water pollution, four R centers established, and more than 100 big modeling projects established from the program.