2010-04-08 01:27

HEFEI - China will spend 15 billion yuan ($2.2 billion) in the first half of this year to beef up sewage treatment facilities as the nation works to clean up its environment, an official said Wednesday.

Wang Shancheng, deputy director of the resource saving and environmental protection department at the National Development and Reform Commission, said last year's 7.8 billion yuan investment helped the nation fulfill its sewage treatment targets between 2005 and 2010 in advance.

In addition to government spending, other channels such as securities issuance and foreign investment are also welcome to join the mission, Wang said at a meeting in Hefei, capital city of eastern China's Anhui Province.

China's sewage treatment capacity has grown 75 percent since 2005 to more than 100 million cubic meters a day at the end of 2009.

Some 1993 sewage treatment plants had been built, a 220 percent rise over 2005.

Qiu Baoxing, Vice Minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said at the meeting that last year's efforts on sewage treatment reduced discharges of COD, or "chemical oxygen demand," a measure of water pollution by more than 7 million tonnes.