China begins survey of Yellow River sewers to find sources of pollution

Inspections of the sewers are expected to be completed within two years
It is the latest effort to gauge and control the pollution in China’s major rivers

Environment

Jack Lau

Published: 7:00pm, 2 Apr 2021

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China has launched its first detailed survey of outfall sewers in the Yellow River drainage basin with the aim of identifying all sources of pollution in the basin within two years, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has said.

The ministry used drones to take detailed aerial imagery with a resolution of up to 10cm (4 inches) to verify suspected sources of pollution, which were then confirmed by inspections in person, Zhai Qing, China’s vice-minister for ecology and the environment, said last Friday at a videoconference launching the inspection programme.

Involving 54 cities in nine provinces and autonomous regions, the inspection is the latest effort to gauge and control the pollution in China’s major rivers.

Zhai said his ministry planned to inspect the banks of the Yellow River basin, measuring 19,000km (12,000 miles), and 1km on each side. Inspections of sewers at upstream and midstream basins to the west and north are expected to be completed this year. Sewers in the rest of the basin will follow in 2022.

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After the survey of these sources of river pollution, the ministry aims to treat them all by the end of 2025, it said.

The Chinese government has promoted a developmental model that accounts for ecological impact. In 2016, it set the goal to identify all static sources of pollution by 2020 to prepare for a system in which permits are issued to generate a certain amount, which firms can trade. The authorities had already inspected all outfall sewers in the northeastern Bohai Sea and in the Yangtze, China’s longest river.

But a pilot sewer inspection programme last year showed that the Yellow River basin ecology was more fragile than that of the Yangtze, which made inspections more difficult, Song Huayong, of the environmental ministry’s law enforcement bureau, told the official China News Service. Results from the pilot programme indicated problems with waste water treatment in the basin.

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“We tested a sample of 460 outfall sewers and about 40 per cent of the locations had substandard water quality,” he said. Song attributed this to irregular distribution of treatment facilities and unregulated piping that allowed waste water from homes and industrial plants to flow directly into the Yellow River.

Only half of urban waste water flowing into the Yellow River basin is treated, according to the ministry. Despite holding only 2 per cent of China’s water, the basin supports 12 per cent of the country’s population and 15 per cent of its farmland. It also receives 8 per cent of China’s river pollutants, with coal-fired power stations, petroleum wells and chemical plants scattered across the basin, the ministry said.