ADB sign $300 Million Wastewater loan PRC

Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed a $300m facility agreement with Sound Global to improve rural wastewater management in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), in a bid to help improve the quality of life of rural communities.

Waste water
The loan will be used to develop innovative technologies to help treat 240,000 tons of wastewater per day in 100 Chinese townships by 2017.

ADB said the huge amount of wastewater generated by China’s rural areas poses a severe environmental threat to rivers, lakes and underground aquifers.

The bank noted that wastewater treatment facilities and sewage pipelines are limited outside of major cities in the country, with less than 20% of wastewater is being treated accurately in rural areas.

ADB East Asia unit head of private sector infrastructure finance Hisaka Kimura said: “By building and operating wastewater treatment plants with small modular automatic rapid technologies, smart solutions can be provided for small communities in rural areas which currently do not have wastewater treatment infrastructure.”

In October 2014, ADB and 13 banks signed a $288m B-loan to support Beijing Enterprises Water Group’s (BEWG) project in the PRC.

BEWG will use the proceeds of B-loan to acquire, build, upgrade, operate and maintain wastewater treatment plants in China.

ADB said the PRC’s increasing demand for water highlights water scarcity and per capita freshwater resources are low and annual per capita water endowments have been declining in the recent years.