Some 280 billion yuan ($41 billion) will be spent on sewage treatment in 90 percent of counties nationwide as part of the central government's 4-trillion-yuan economic stimulus package.

About 2,600 counties will benefit from the building or upgrading of facilities, Qiu Baoxing, vice-minister of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, told a forum recently.

A senior official from the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) told China Daily: "This is the first time that there is a nationwide sewage treatment program."