Beijing's major drainage service questioned for poor management

Beijing Drainage Group, which manages wastewater treatment and the sewage network in the capital, has been questioned by the Ministry of Environmental Protection over poor management.

Several treatment plants run by the state-owned company failed to treat wastewater to government standards, said the ministry in a statement Tuesday.

The statement said that the effluent from a plant in Tongzhou District, eastern Beijing, had not been properly processed "for a long period of time" due to substandard facilities.

Two plants in northern Beijing were also found to have released substandard processed water, and another two were found to have failed to work within protocol.

The company's treatment of sewage posed environment risks, the ministry noted.

Only 10 percent of 2,800 tonnes of sewage sludge produced daily by the company's wastewater treatment had been processed in an environmentally-friendly way, while the remainder was poorly composted or left to rot in open spaces, it said.

The company was also accused of ignoring the unusual deterioration of waste water in some regions, which had been caused by industrial waste contamination.

The ministry asked the company to inform the municipal government of a solution within 20 working days.

"Beijing Drainage Group is responsible for serving the capital and should be put under stricter scrutiny," the statement said. Endi