Remember – After You Buy the Environmentally Friendly Equipment, You Need to Turn it On!
Monday, December 29, 2008 20:55One of the sad truths about cleantech in China is that at times, even when the money is spent, it is a case of two steps forward – one step back.
My initial insights into this phenomenon was through some conversations on coal scrubbers, and the calls that China needed to invest in them. Speaking with friends it was clear that the story actually was not so simple…that scrubbers were often installed… but due to the “marginal” cost of operating and maintaining them, they were rarely used. That the only reason for buying them in the first place was to gain approvals, or to secure funding for the larger project.
So, it should come as no surprise I guess that this same approach to managing water treatment facilities would also exist.
According to the recent China.org article Dirty Business:
After years of investing in building up wastewater treatment facilities, lack of proper operation and management has become a new impediment in China’s efforts to clean up its rivers and lakes.
and given China is about to spend a lot of money on investing in more equipment…
As part of the central government’s 4-trillion-yuan economic stimulus package, some 280 billion yuan will be spent on sewage treatment in 90 percent of counties nationwide in the coming years.
About 2,600 counties will benefit from the building or upgrading of facilities, according to Qiu Baoxing, vice-minister of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.
… it is going to be very important that the people in charge of the equipment are properly trained to operate and maintain the investments in a way that is in line with the goals set out:
The inspection result shows that some of the sewage treatment plants in the province are not operating on a full scale, with individual cases of halting operation without permission.
Seven out of 49 sewage treatment plants are discharging treated wastewater that fails to reach the emissions standard, or containing pollutants that exceed the maximum authorized levels.
and there is more:
The sewage plants are generating a large amount of sludge everyday. But little of the sludge is properly treated the inspection team discovered.
At the backyard of a sewage treatment plant in Yuncheng, Shanxi province, sludge residue was scattered on the ground still wet and foul-smelling.
Xiong Yuehui, head of the Northern China Environment Supervision Center, says he doubted that the plant was piling up sludge there since it was put into operation two years ago, but he had suspicions about where it may have gone.
“I have no idea where the sludge ends up,” says Xiong. “The plant may have dumped it into rivers or piled it up at other places, just to cope with the inspection.
“It’s really terrible.” Xiong says, “It’s a simple calculation: treating each ton of wastewater will generate about 5 tons of sludge and the plant has been treating about 3 tons of household sewage everyday for two years.”
I think what really gets me about this story is that while those in charge saw the need to invest in the equipment, they failed to fully budget for the costs of the ongoing operations and they have failed to properly manage their people.
It was just another classic case of where investments are made to satisfy some perfunctory image requirement, and that was it. More than simple management issues and finding the trained poodle to turn the equipment on/off, the issue of pricing must also be addressed by the good folks at the NDRC – and agency with a history of putting economic development before environment.
