A Canadian environmental technology company and its Chinese partner has won the bid to build a sewage treatment plant in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

The North American Envirotech Ltd. from Canada and Beijing-based Qinghua Tongfang Co., Ltd. signed the contract with the municipal government of Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang, Wednesday.

According to the contract, the project named Taiping Sewage Treatment Plant will have a daily processing capacity of 325,000 tons. The consortium will build up the project in two years, operate it for 23 years and then transfer it free of charge to the Harbin municipal government.

China is attaching greater importance to good environmental quality and enforcing stricter sewage discharge rules to realize harmonious social and economic growth.

The Chinese government has ordered cities with a population above 500,000 to achieve sewage treatment ratios above 60 percent by 2005, and all cities should reach that level by 2010.

Of the 340 Chinese cities monitored for their sewage treatment, sewage treatment ratio reached only 42.1 percent in 2003, according to the statistics from China's National Bureau of Statistics. In Wuhan, capital of Hubei Province, the ratio was only 21.2 percent in 2003.

As charges for sewage discharge is being raised across the country, sewage treatment has become a lucrative business and is attracting more and more investment.
 
(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2004)