The municipal government of Guangzhou will move into a higher gear to improve water infrastructure and the quality of drinking water, officials said yesterday at a seminar on water treatment.

While relying on increased capital input, the city will also use the latest water treatment technology, said Ran Shende, director of the Guangzhou Urban Planning and Gardening Bureau.

Three other events the Water, Wastewater and Water Treatment China 2005; Pump, Valve & Pipe China 2005; and Air & Waste Treatment China 2005 are being held at the same time.

They are sponsored by the China Foreign Trade Center Group and managed by China Foreign Trade Guangzhou Exhibition Corp, and will run until Friday.

More than 200 enterprises, including some from a dozen countries and regions, are showing off their latest equipment and technological solutions, ranging from the ultra filter system, membrane technology, bio-technology and seawater desalination to reverse osmosis for water supply and water treatment.

The official said Guangzhou will install four sewage disposal works with online monitoring systems this year, at a cost of 12.55 million yuan (US$1.51 million).

The online monitoring system, which is in operation at Guangzhou Xilang Sewage Disposal Works, monitors the indices of six pollutants and is capable of providing 12 sets of monitoring data.

Guangzhou has five sewage disposal works, four in urban districts and one in Guangzhou Development District in the east of the city. The five works dispose of 1.42 million tons of sewage a day, more than 70 percent of the city's total.

Daily sewage disposal capacity was 560,000 tons before the second phase project of Liede Sewage Disposal Works, the third phase project of Datansha Sewage Disposal Works and the initial phase project of Xilang Sewage Disposal Works became operational in 2004.

The city treated more than 400 million tons of sewage.

He said the city aims to dispose of 80 percent of its sewage this year, and all of it by 2006.

Official statistics say that the city has spent an average of 1.23 billion yuan (US$149 million) annually on sewage disposal over the past few years.

Guangzhou will also make greater efforts to improve rivers throughout the city, to give it a much needed facelift.

Huang Huicheng, an official from the Guangdong Provincial Environment Protection Administration, said his organization will be closely monitoring 120 enterprises they suspect of polluting rivers, by installing online monitoring equipment.

(China Daily March 9, 2005)