China - Tai Basin Urban Environment Project : environmental assessment (Vol. 4 of 5) : Summary report

E808 VOL. 5 Tai Basin Urban Environment Project Environmental Assessment SUMMARY REPORT Environmental Hydraulic Institute of Hohai University Nanjing People's Republic of China November 2003  Tai Basin Urban Environment Project Environmental Assessment SUMMARY REPORT Environmental Hydraulic Instituteof Hohai University Nanjing People's Republic of China November 2003  Tai Basin UrbanEnvironmentProject Summnary EA Tai Basin Urban Environment Project Environmental Assessment SUMMARY REPORT Jiangsu Province, the People's Republic ofChina (November, 2003) I Introduction 1.1 Project Background The Project consists mainly of six wastewater treatment plants, a lake rehabilitation program, a flood and pollution control program, a river dredging program, and several non-physical components related to environmental management and institutional strengthening. All project components are located in Jiangsu province's industrial cities ofWuxi and Suzhou, within the Tai Lake Basin (TLB), as shown in Figure 1.1. The TLB, with a total catchment area of 36,500 km2, spans across three provinces and the municipality of Shanghai, with 52.5% of its area within Jiangsu province. As one of the most developed regions in China, the TLB generates 11% of the national GDP with its 37 highly industrialized medium and large cities and a population of 36.8 million which is 3% of the national total. In 1997, the State Council of the Chinese central government announced "Decisions On Issues of Environmental Protection" (the Decisions), which has since become a primary guide for the country's environmental protection and pollution control effort. One of the important initiatives under the State Council's Decisions is the "Three Lakes and Three Rivers" pollution control program, referring to the six landmark and most sensitive water bodies and river basins in China. The TLB is one of the three lakes and thus one of the highest priority water basin pollution control programs in the country. Guided by this program, the State Council approved the Tenth Five-Year (2001-2005) Tai Lake Water Pollution Prevention Plan which sets the goal to reach Category III (permanganate index or CODm,) to IV-V (total phosphorus or TP) of the Surface Water Quality standards by 2005. To meet these goals, the Plan calls for reduction of chemical oxygen demand (COD) discharge 113,400 tons per day by 2005 which will be about 23% reduction from the year 2000 discharge, 2,000 tons of TP, about 14% reduction and 30,900 tons of ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), about 24% reduction. This would require the construction of76 municipal wastewater treatments plants (WWTP) in Jiangsu province, as well as 16 WWTPs in other jurisdictions of the TLB. The Plan also calls for ecosystem rehabilitation and lake/riversediment dredging programs as part of the comprehensive TLB environmental improvement strategy with an estimated total investment of RMB22 billion. EHlofHohaiUniversity I November 2003  /tfg iv s~~igu re 1.1 The Locations for Components of TBUEP Suwa isLcd n mk | i 4 > >_ 9 / 7 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shnndong! \.>j7 t , v uqlll \~~~~~~~~~~ f,4 > v i )