Imbalanced Development and Economic Burden for Urban and Rural Wastewater Treatment in China—Discharge Limit Legislation

Meishu Wang,Hui Gong

doi:10.3390/su10082597

Abstract

Water pollution control is a great challenge for China. Compared with urban regions, the wastewater treatment in rural areas is much undeveloped, which is highly related with the much delayed legislation for rural wastewater. Imbalanced urban-rural development and the economic burden of urban and rural wastewater treatment in China was investigated from the perspective of discharge limit legislation. For now, the national discharge limit for rural wastewater is still vacant, although the national discharge limit for urban wastewater had been released for more than ten years. Recently, local rural wastewater discharge limits from several provinces were released, however, based on quite different principles. Some categories emphasized environmental sensitivity with the discharge limit equal and were more strict than urban standards, while some focused on resource recovery for rural regions with loose discharge limits. This study compared the financial burden between rural and urban regions in 31 provinces under different discharge limit legislation conditions. It was revealed that the resources recovery category discharge principle helped to decrease the financial burden imbalance with a reduced Gini coefficient from 0.37 to 0.17. The reduced economic burden from the implementation of a suitably designed rural discharge limit promoted balancing the rural-urban gap and lowering uncertainties and risk of sustainable rural wastewater treatment. This study also revealed the urgency of rural water legislation and proposed development with a balanced financial burden for urban and rural residents under suitable discharge limits, providing a profound insight for environmental management with a focus on balanced urban-rural development for the policy-makers in developing countries.

Highlights

With consideration of the severe water environment burden, tremendous efforts have been directed towards increasing wastewater treatment capacity in China [1]
There was no statistical data for rural specific electricity consumption for wastewater treatment. It was estimated as 3 kWh/t and 1 kWh/t, respectively, for a discharge limit focusing on environmental sensitivity with strict requirements and a discharge limit focusing on resource recovery with loose requirements, which was discussed in detail
Delayed Legislation in Rural Area Compared with Urban Regions

Summary

Introduction

With consideration of the severe water environment burden, tremendous efforts have been directed towards increasing wastewater treatment capacity in China [1]. Based on statistical data from the Ministry of Housing and urban-rural development of China (MOHURD), the number of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) has increased from approximately 480 in 2000 to 3700 in 2014, with capacity increasing from 22 million ton/d to 157 million ton/d. Most the WWTPs were built in urban areas with less development of rural wastewater treatment facilities. In 2016, nearly 93.44% of the municipal wastewater from residents of cities was treated, while the percentage for rural regions was estimated at only about 22%. It was estimated 21–24 million ton/d of wastewater was generated in rural areas and the amount kept increasing due to an improved standard of living. An increasing pollution load and undeveloped wastewater treatment facilities have posed a great threat to the rural environment

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Conclusion