Ground was broken on Sunday for construction of the Dongming wastewater treatment plant, the first of six such plants planned for the eastern line of China's ambitious south-to-north water-diversion scheme.

The kick-off marked the start of a new round of massive pollution-control work to pave the way for the line's construction in the years ahead.

Pollution has been the most formidable issue plaguing the more than 1,100-kilometre canal of the eastern line from East China's Jiangsu Province to Tianjin, a major port city in North China.

Upstream of Shandong's Nansihu Reservoir, the plant is designed to reduce an annual 7,000 tons of discharge threatening the reservoir, the key buffer controlling water quality in sections along the eastern trunk line south of the Yellow River, officials said.

With an investment of 120 million yuan (US$14 million), daily sewage treatment capacity of the plant can be up to 60,000 tons, a water official said at a ceremony where the foundation for the plant was laid.

Zhang Liwei, director of the department of environment and resettlement, the office responsible for construction of the south-to-north scheme under the State Council, said "upon completion, up to 20,000 tons of treated wastewater can also be recycled for industrial use or irrigation.''

To ensure the water quality downstream from the reservoir, officials have had to close down Dongming's three paper pulp mills, the major sources of pollution to the reservoir, Liu Lu, a top official of the county, told China Daily.

(China Daily December 30, 2003)