With extraordinary efforts on sewage disposal, Chongqing has eradicated most practices of sewage discharging without permission or in prohibited ways across the city. Standing books have been established to solve problems in direct dumping of sewage without correct disposal, Chongqing Municipal People's Government released at a press conference on January 6.
Picturesque scenery in Shuanglong Town shows an excellent ecological environment.
On April 20, 2019, Chongqing circulated the General River Chief Order No. 1, deciding to launch a campaign on rectifying practices of sewage discharging without permission, without correct disposal, and in prohibited ways. Over the nine months, the city has seen a substantial improvement in water environment quality and effective control over river pollution, marking a remarkable phased success of the implementation of the Order.
According to Wu Shenghai, Director of Chongqing Municipal River Chief Office, following the release of the Order, all districts, counties, and departments concerned in Chongqing have striven to eliminate the non-compliant sewage discharging practices. To achieve the objective, they have established long-term mechanisms for water pollution control, including a river basin co-governance mechanism, a mechanism aligning administrative law enforcement with criminal justice, a supervision and appraisal mechanism, a source prevention and control mechanism and a collaborative prevention and control mechanism for cross-border rivers.
Currently, sanitary sewage, industrial wastewater, and livestock pollution are the three primary pollution sources of Chongqing, and sewage discharging practices without permission, without correct disposal and in prohibited ways, are the top priorities for solving the three pollution sources. The river chief system is the first step among numerous efforts. The unique rectification campaign is also the first move to solve critical river pollution problems.
Next, Chongqing will carry out a “One river, one policy” task with more efforts on solving 710 unsolved issues. The government will put the special rectification campaign in place in 2020. Specifically, they will establish sound mechanisms in secret investigations and inquiries, supervision and appraisal, classified rectification, follow-up auditing, etc.; they will see to it that the river chiefs have clear responsibilities and fulfill them earnestly; they will intensify the responsibilities of departments at all levels and consolidate results of the special rectification to eradicate occurrence of any sewage discharging practice without permission, without correct disposal, and in prohibited ways.
With regard to sewage discharge without correct disposal, Chongqing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and Management will work to construct urban drainage and sewage treatment facilities as quickly as possible, to ensure that all urban sewage treatment plants will meet the national Level A, Class I discharge standard by the end of 2020 and that the centralized treatment rate of municipal sewage will reach 95%.