Construction has been completed on the sewage treatment plants in Fengdu county and Jiangjin city of Chongqing Municipality in the area of the gigantic Three Gorges Water Control Project.

The sewage plant in Fengdu, which covers an area of three hectares, is capable of treating 30,000 cubic meters of domestic sewage wastes per day. When the Three Gorges dam begins to store water on June 1, the sewage disposal plant will begin treating all industrial and residential sewage wastes produced by the new town of Fengdu. Two waste sewage plants in Jiangjin city have also begun operation on a trial basis.

The plants are the first to be built in the dam area. Chongqing plans to build 30 more sewage treatment plants in the dam area before 2005 at a cost of 9.8 billion yuan (about US$1.1 billion).

The first group of plants comprise 19 projects in 13 districts and counties to be built at an estimated combined cost of 1.5 billion yuan (US$180 million).

Yu Yuanmu, vice-mayor of Chongqing, predicts that 10 sewage treatment plants are expected to commence operation before the dam begins to store water, while another eight will be operational by the end of this year.

(Xinhua News Agency May 27, 2003)