Beijing to eliminate untreated sewage discharged into rivers

Beijing has come up with a three-year plan to get rid of sewage directly discharged into rivers without treatment, Beijing Water Authority said on Monday.

According to the authority, 141 river reaches in the city are rated as "black and odorous."

Beijing plans to expand its sewage collection network, complete sewage treatment facilities in the urban area and renovate surface water pipelines to reduce pollution discharged into rivers along with rain.

Black and odorous water will be eliminated in the capital by the end of 2018, according to the plan.

Although the city's water shortage has been greatly alleviated by the water diversion through the middle route of the massive south-to-north water diversion project, the capital still faces the shortage of water resources.

In addition, Beijing will gradually raise the use of reclaimed water. The city used a total of 950 million cubic meters of reclaimed water in 2015, and it is expected to curb the total water consumption within 4.3 billion cubic meters while using 1.2 billion cubic meters of reclaimed water by 2020.

To fulfill the plan, Beijing will build or renovate five water reclamation plants and 116 km of sewage pipes, dealing with sewage problems in 70 villages this year.

It is expected that Beijing's sewage treatment rate will surpass 95 percent and no sewage will be discharged into rivers before being treated by 2020. Endi