Poor promotion of construction of domestic sewage treatment facilities in Guangnan County, Wenshan Prefecture; the inspector pointed out that the problem was "persistent"

Source: Yunnan Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment

In June 2023, the second round of the second batch of the first ecological environment protection supervision team of Yunnan Province sank and found that the construction of the second phase expansion project of Guangnan County Sewage Treatment Plant was not well advanced, and the problem rectification was seriously lagging behind.

1、 Basic information

Guangnan County covers an area of 7810 square kilometers, with a permanent population of about 100000 and a daily sewage production of about 14000 cubic meters. There is currently one sewage treatment plant with a design capacity of 8000 cubic meters of domestic sewage per day, which no longer meets the sewage treatment needs of the county.

2、 Main issues

（1） Neglecting the problems pointed out by the inspector, persisting in teaching and perfunctory rectification

Since 2017, the problems related to sewage treatment in Guangnan County County have been fed back by provincial environmental protection inspectors and "looking back", provincial special inspectors on urban "two pollutants" treatment facilities as key issues. Although Wenshan Prefecture has formulated a rectification plan, defined rectification measures and rectification time limit, the rectification work in Guangnan County is superficial, "only expressing opinions but not implementing", and "ignoring" the construction of environmental protection facilities related to people's livelihood, The sewage treatment plant Phase II project has not been completed and put into use by the end of June 2022, as it has repeatedly ignored the supervision of relevant departments at the higher level. The project site has not been determined by the end of 2018 and construction has not been started by the end of September 2020, as required by the time limit. The inspector feedback shows that the rectification of the problem is not effective and there has been no substantial progress for a long time. The construction of Guangnan County Sewage Treatment Plant Phase II Project will not start until April 2023 when the provincial ecological environment protection supervision is about to enter, and the project is still in the process of site leveling.

（2） Shortcomings in governance facilities and prominent environmental pollution hazards

The second phase project of Guangnan County Sewage Treatment Plant has not been completed for a long time. The existing sewage treatment plant has been operating at full load for a long time, and the supporting sewage pipe network is not perfect. The problems of rainwater and sewage mixed flow and wrong connection of pipe network are prominent. In 2022, the daily average inflow of the existing sewage treatment plant was 8144 cubic meters. From January to April 2023, the daily average inflow was 8298 cubic meters. Compared with the amount of sewage that should be treated, about 6000 cubic meters of sewage were not collected and treated every day, indicating significant shortcomings in sewage treatment facilities. The second phase of the sewage treatment plant project is severely lagging behind the construction of supporting pipeline networks, and some newly added pipelines have not played their due role. The collected sewage cannot be sent to the sewage treatment plant for treatment, causing pollution to the receiving water bodies of the county. On site investigation found that the color of the water near the Tongji Hospital on the Badahe River in the county town and the Xifeng Restaurant on Beining Road turned black, with extremely poor sensory perception and obvious odor. From January to May, the sewage collection rate in Guangnan County was only 16%, the domestic sewage was not fully collected, and a large amount of sewage could not be collected and treated in the rainy season and discharged directly, resulting in a large potential environmental pollution.

3、 Cause analysis

The construction of the second phase of the sewage treatment plant project has been delayed repeatedly, resulting in prominent water pollution hazards.

The inspection team will further investigate and verify the relevant situation, and carry out follow-up inspection work as required.