Xinwu district upgrades wastewater treatment plants

A wastewater treatment plant located in the Xinwu district, Wuxi. [Photo/ourjiangsu.com]

Three updated wastewater treatment plants were put into operation in Wuxi's Xinwu district on Jan 12.

The three plants are able to treat 500,000 tons of wastewater every day, among which 64 percent of the effluent water quality can reach Grade III, the third-highest grade in China's five-tier quality system for surface water.

Xinwu district is the first in Jiangsu province to reach the goal, according to officials.

Liu Yun from the Wuxi Xinwu housing and urban-rural development department said that Xinwu district has spent three years upgrading and reconstructing the wastewater treatment plants, aiming to reduce the amount of pollutants and improve the water quality for the public.

Liu said that the Wuxi Xincheng Wastewater Treatment Plant can now reduce pollutants totaling nearly 1,900 tons per year, which represents a reduction of the total amount of sewage generated by 300,000 residents per year.

Xinwu district is an important industrial area in Wuxi. Half of the district's wastewater comes from industrial production, which puts forward higher requirements for wastewater treatment.

The integration of new technologies and process methods has helped improve water quality, according to Zhou Yong, director of the Wuxi Xincheng Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Zhou said that the last step of wastewater treatment is to use an ultrafiltration membrane with a pore size of 0.025 microns to further remove suspended matter and total phosphorus. This method is similar to a household water purifier.

Local officials noted that during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) period, Wuxi plans to use more reclaimed water in environmental sanitation and in planting the city's green belts.