Why this is important to Wisconsin businesses: As it aims to remediate water pollution and protect its water supply, Wisconsin companies can provide expertise.
China’s State Council previously carried out the Action Plan for Prevention and Treatment of Water Pollution (“Water Ten”) in order to reduce pollution, improve the quality of drinking water and promote water conservation. This action plan has brought about 10 major objectives. It aims to ensure that over 70 percent of water in all seven major river basins, including the Yangtze River, Yellow River and Hai He River, is in good condition. Currently, the aquatic ecosystem throughout the country is seriously damaged. According to research by China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection, 60 percent of China’s underground water is ranked “bad” or “very bad,” and 17 of 31 major lakes have been polluted. In order to realize the goals of “Water Ten,” Chinese will need to eliminate production inefficiencies, improve water use efficiency, and take advantage of market forces for water resources management.
In January 2017, the Ministry of Environmental Protection held the 2017 National Environmental Protection Conference in Beijing. The conference emphasized the full implementation of the "Water Ten," strengthening comprehensive management of the river basin’s water environment, implementing the Yangtze River economic belt protection work, starting a downstream horizontal ecological compensation pilot city, organizing a body for the investigation of black-odor river water, and carrying out comprehensive improvement of the rural environment. In 2016, the ratio of the national surface water monitoring sections I-III increased by 5.7 percent, and the poor V section ratio has reduced by 2.3 percent. As of November 2016, among the confirmed 2014 black-odor river water bodies, 13.3 percent had been remediated and 32.5 percent was still under remediation.
In 2017, the government will supervise the implementation of local government responsibility, cooperate with the Department of Housing to increase the efforts on the black-odor water remediation, and promote standardization of drinking water access. It will also guide the country to establish more than 28,000 administrative villages for the purpose of comprehensive environmental remediation. The industrial agglomeration area will build sewage treatment facilities and install automatic online monitoring devices by the end of 2017, according to the provisions.
Over the course of the 13th five-year, plan total environmental protection investment is expected to exceed $1.7 trillion, with $700 billion invested in water treatment. With the increase in investment capital, the implementation of supporting measures is expected to accelerate.
The biggest part of the environmental protection effort is black-odor river water body governance. This complex problem will require technologies and management, business model, transaction interface, investment and financing.