Underground Water Treatment Plant to Make Waste Useful
30/05/2016
Workers at the construction site of the Huaifang Water Recycling Plant in Beijing's Fengtai district. Image: Hao Yi/For China Daily
The largest underground water recycling plant in Asia is expected to be completed in Beijing by the end of June.
The Huaifang Water Recycling Plant, which will be capable of recycling 200 million cubic meters of sewage a year and able to treat most waste water from Beijing's western urban area, will contribute greatly to the city's environmental protection, according to the city's publicity department.
Under a plan for wastewater treatment and reuse facilities that was released by the city in January, Beijing will build 27 new water recycling plants and install and upgrade 1,081 kilometers of sewage pipelines during the next three years.
The Huaifang facility, located in the capital's southwest, covers an area of more than 16 hectares and is equipped with cutting-edge technology. It was built underground to save valuable land.
Industrial and household waster water will be treated and transformed into water that reaches environmental protection standards, which will be used for industrial and commercial purposes in nearby areas and also to replenish nearby waterways.
A wetland park of the same size as the underground water treatment plant will be built on the surface. The park will be fed by recycled water from the plant, according to the Beijing Drainage Group, the operator of the plant.
Wastewater flowing into the plant will be treated in various ways, which will include filtration, biological degradation of chemicals and sterilization with ultraviolet rays, said an electrical engineer involved with the project.
The development was the largest water treatment project among several listed in a three-year plan released by the Beijing municipal government in 2013.
Image: BWPI
Beijing, with per-capita water resources of about 150 cubic meters, which is far less than the national average, is in shortage of water.
Last year, an additional 1 billion cubic meters of fresh water was supplied to Beijing through the south-north water diversion project, a massive program to divert water from the Yangtze River to North China.
