AccScience Publishing / AJWEP / Volume 13 / Issue 4 / DOI: 10.3233/AJW-160033
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Wastewater Treatment in Chinese Rural Areas

Yihuan Deng1* Andrew Wheatley1
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1 Civil and Building Engineering Department, Loughborough University, Loughborough, LE11 3TU
AJWEP 2016, 13(4), 1–11; https://doi.org/10.3233/AJW-160033
Submitted: 20 January 2016 | Revised: 19 August 2016 | Accepted: 19 August 2016 | Published: 13 October 2016
© 2016 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Abstract

In the last 10 years, the extent of wastewater treated in China has increased by 57%, the great amounts of sewage have threatened people’s health as well the natural environment. In the last 10 years, the sewage treatment rate has improved, in December 2013, 99.1% of Chinese cities and 82.6% counties have sewage treatment plants. This review paper describes the current situation and has suggestion of how to overcome future sewage problems especially water pollution in China from domestic, agriculture and industrial sectors. It also discusses the urban/ rural wastewater for treatment including sewerage systems, treatment plants and water quality standards in China. The paper highlights the challenges of effective wastewater treatment in rural areas as a particular issue due to lack of monitoring and law support. This has led to ineffective management of treatment plants, financial difficulties; inappropriate sewerage, treatment facilities and standards; as well as poor awareness.

Keywords
China
rural
wastewater
treatment
challenge
Conflict of interest
The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution, Electronic ISSN: 1875-8568 Print ISSN: 0972-9860, Published by AccScience Publishing