SHANGHAI households are in for a surprise as they open their mailboxes this month: the city government will charge them for treating waste water. Companies and work units face a rise of the already existing fee. Pressurised by the World Bank (WB), China has decided to introduce 'the-polluter-pays' principle.
"This is very new for China," says general manager Zheng Man Gu of the Shanghai Municipal Sewerage Company Ltd (SMSC). "Until now companies, work units and households didn't pay anything or only very little for their emissions of waste water. When money was needed, the government had to pay," he said. At present, Shanghai is constructing the biggest sewerage system in China. The project, to be completed in AD 2000, includes a us $250 million loan from the WB.
With 14 million legal residents and about four million migrants, Shanghai is the biggest city of China. Daily,5.5 million cubic metre of waste waterpollute the rivers surrounding Shanghai,of which only 200,000 cubic metre Ofdomestic and one million cubic metreof industrial waste water gets treated.
The resultant environmental effectsare disastrous. A WB report says thatthere are "significant health risks...restricting economic growth". Fish aredying in the lower Huangpu and its tributaries, and shellfish downstream carryvery high pathogen levels, claimed thereport.
Every year, 300,000 Shanghainesemove to new apartments, and veryoften, it's for the first time that theyhave their own flushing toilet and shower. But the average daily use of water per person in some districts, which is as lowas 100 litres, is expected to touch anaverage high of 250 litte and in someareas, even 400 litre per person daily.
The new facility would have an initial capacity of 1.7 million cubic metre per day, but would be able to treat fivemillion cubic metre of water by AD 2020.According to the WB, the project wouldimprove the conditions of the Huangpuriver dramatically and curtail freshwaterintake for Shanghai in the long run.
The WB admits that making the polluters pay in China is a difficult issue "in the current inflationary environment",but it met with a "positive response tothe pricing issue in the water sector".Paying up is still considered a problemfor the debt-ridden state-owned companies. But the SMSC-general manager says,"Most companies have no problems."
Levies on the use of water is alsoenvisaged in future, which the Bankintends to employ in other projects thatit has planned in the Hubei, Guangxiand Yunnan provinces.