Status and development for municipal wastewater reuse in China

Municipal wastewater treatment and water reuse in China has seen great development in recent years. In 2008, the combined wastewater in 655 cities in China reached 36.5 billion cubic meters. These cities built 1018 wastewater treatment plants and the treatment flow was 81.06 millions cubic meters per day which treated about 70.15% of these municipal wastewaters. The capacity of water reuse was 20.2 millions cubic meters per day, and the quantity of treatment utilization was 3.36 billions cubic meters which was 9.2% of wastewater flow and 13.1% of wastewater treatment quantity. Water reuse was significant in water deficient or economically developing areas. Water reuse is important in industrial, landscaping, irrigational, and non-potable water usages. The scale, water quality, criteria, safety, and management of water reuse need to be studied and improved. In this paper, we study the issues of water reuse in China; we will also discuss future improvements in several areas such as wastewater reuse regulation, safety management, technologies, and incentive strategies. Hopefully, the percentage of water reuse will increase to improve environmental sustainability.