China Water: May 24, 2008: Shanghai water quality improvements announced.

Two interesting stories about changes in Shanghai's water system. Please see "China Water: May 24, 2008: Shanghai announces drop in water demand." for both commentary and a related story.

Peter Huston
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http://en.beijing2008.cn/news/olympiccities/shanghai/n214298632.shtml

Shanghai's water quality to improve with Yangtze project
Updated：2008-04-09 From：Xinhuanet

SHANGHAI, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The launch of the Qingcaosha project, which will provide a new source of drinking water from the Yangtze River, means that the people of Shanghai will have better quality drinking water as of 2010, said an official with the municipal Environment Protection Bureau on Wednesday.

Qingcaosha is an area of the Yangtze River.

Bureau director Zhang Quan said that Qingcaosha will provide Shanghai with more than 7 million tons of high-quality potable water every day as of 2010. That amount will supply approximately 10 million people, or 70 percent of the city's population.

Shanghai has enough water, but much of it is low quality, said Zhang. He said that Qingcaosha was the best option at present.

About 80 percent of Shanghai's drinking water comes from the Huangpu River. But that river quality is ranked third or fourth, while the water from Qingcaosha will be first-quality.

He also said that Qingcaosha will be more than a drinking water source; it will include a 500-million-ton reservoir that can supply the city for 68 days.

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http://english.hanban.edu.cn/english/LI-e/34207.htm

Shanghai Citizens to Drink Best Water in the World in 2010


The quality of drinking water in Shanghai will meet European Union standards by 2010 and, a decade later, citizens in Shanghai will drink the best water in the world.

These were the goals set out by the Shanghai Water Authority. With the city's population expected to increase only marginally and the economy to boom by 2020, Chen Yin, an official with the water authority, claimed Shanghai's water consumption will not increase from its present volume.

Zhang Yue, director of the Urban Construction Division under the Ministry of Construction, said: "Shanghai is the first city in the country to publicize these ambitions. They will not be easy to achieve."

Zhang is a member of the enquiry team sent by the central government to examine the city's qualification to be ranked as one of the first batch of water-saving cities in the country.

He said attaching strategic importance to water saving will help guarantee the sustainable development of China's economy.

Saving one cubic meter of water means saving the city's infrastructure costs by 10,000 yuan (US$1,2000). Last year, Shanghai saved 300 million cubic meters of water either from readjustment of industrial structure or the employment of new technology.

"The core is to arouse public awareness of the seriousness of water shortages," Chen said. "The abundant surface water and precipitation of the city are so misleading that they result in improper use of water."

Shanghai lacks drinkable water. The Huangpu River, which supplies 80 per cent of the city's drinkable water, is nearing exhaustion.

The city, therefore, has been exploring new sources from the Yangtze River and growing forests along it to conserve quality water.

Besides penning regulations, the authority is popularizing technology among the public to efficiently cut the amount of water used.

At present, the city has 600,000 family toilets, each using 13 liters of water per flush. These are to be renovated to use only 9 liters of water per flush.

The authority is renovating the first 200 toilets for households - at a cost of 40 yuan (US$4.8) each.

In three years, all the toilets will be renovated, which saves the city nearly 15 million yuan (US$1.82 million) annually in water conservation.

Another task the city is engaged in is the treatment of sewage to improve the water environment.

At present the city can only treat 44 per cent of its daily 5.04 million tons of waste water. To meet the total demand, 27 more sewage treatment factories are to be established with an estimated investment of 18 billion yuan (US$2.18 billion).

(People's Daily June 10, 2002)