CHINA’S LONG MARCH TO SAFE DRINKING WATER Hongqiao Liu Photo Copyright © Debra Tan A China Water Risk /chinadialogue Report 1 March 2015 — This report is funded by China Water Risk and forms a series of investigative reports into water in China. Report author: Hongqiao Liu English translation: Hannah Short Contact us For any enquiries, please contact: info@chinawaterrisk.org About China Water Risk China Water Risk (C WR) is a nonprofit initiative dedicated to addressing business & environmental risk arising from China’s urgent water crisis. We aim to foster efficient and responsible use of China’s water resources by engaging the global business and investment communities. As such we facilitate discussion amongst industry leaders, investors, experts & scientists on understanding & managing water risk across six industry sectors: Agriculture, Power, Mining, Food & Beverage, Textiles and Electronics. CWR has also been commissioned by financial institutions to conduct research analyzing the impact of water risks on the Power, Mining and Agricultural sectors. These reports have been considered groundbreaking and instrumental to understanding China’s waterenergy-food nexus. Join the discussion at www.chinawaterrisk.org. Report Partner This report was supported by chinadialogue. China is growing fast and, as it grows, it is faced with urgent environmental challenges. Climate change, species loss, pollution, water scarcity and environment damage are not problems confined to one country. They are challenges that concern all the world's citizens, but the rise of China gives them a new urgency. Tackling these challenges will require a common effort and common understanding. Here at chinadialogue, a nonprofit organisation, we aim to promote that common understanding. chinadialogue is devoted to the publication of high quality, bilingual information, direct dialogue and the search for solutions to our shared environmental challenges. www.chinadialogue.net 2 A China Water Risk / chinadialogue Report: CHINA’S LONG MARCH TO SAFE DRINKING WATER INTRO: CHINA’ S DRINKING WATER SAFETY FACES SCRUTINY IN 2015 Government set ambitious goals and a RMB700 billion budget to safeguard water quality at outset of 12FYP A look at how well China is meeting ambitious goals for drinking water safety set five years ago as the government prepares its 13th Five Year Plan (2016-2020) BIG GOALS Separately, there was also a movement to lift and standardise China's central government set ambitious goals to safeguard varying provincial drinking water quality by introducing a new water quality in 2011, at the outset of the 12th Five Year national standard. In 2007, a ‘National Drinking Water Quality Plan (2011-2015). Those goals targeted improvements from Standard’ (GB 5749-2006) was introduced. This standard is source-to-tap, earmarking a budget of nearly RMB 700 billion in accordance with international standards, but since the bar (USD112 billion) to pay for upgrades to water treatment was set far above the actual quality levels of China’s water, and piping systems. The funds were spread across multiple it only came into full effect in July 2012. The government ministries and government bodies, including the State expects cities across China to meet this national standard Council, the National Development and Reform Commission by 2015. (“NDRC”), the Ministry of Water Resources (“MWR”), the Ministry of Environmental Protection (“MEP”), the Ministry of 2015 has arrived, but how far is China's government from Housing and Urban-Rural Development (“MOHURD”) and realizing its water safety goals? the Ministry of Health (“MoH”). 3 A China Water Risk / chinadialogue Report: CHINA’S LONG MARCH TO SAFE DRINKING WATER In 2010, over 600 million urban residents already enjoyed access to public water supply services, and more than 400 million rural residents had access to clean drinking water. This High quality drinking water requires comprehensive policies and standards to govern entire supply chain from source-to-tap was primarily due to government-led improvements in water For water treatment and main-pipe network management, supply and safe drinking water initiatives. However, 298 million China is locked into a ‘technology-focused’ path, and is rural Chinese still lacked safe drinking water and this was to looking at high-tech innovation and infrastructure investment change during the 2011-2015 Plan. For urban residents, the to ensure water quality and delivery. stated public water supply penetration rate was to rise from 90% to 95%. However, problems persist in secondary water supply, which has the greatest direct impact on tap water quality. Despite QUESTIONABLE QUALITY many attempts to address this, there is still no perfect solution. Whilst it is clear that more people across China are enjoying access to public water supply, what is not clear is the quality of MACRO-LEVEL SUCCESS the water delivered. The mid-term evaluation of the 12th Five Year Plan (12FYP), which started in mid-2013 may hold the Many insiders with access to water quality data and information answers. However, the assessment report is “classified” and at ministry and department level share a common view of the full report has not yet been made available to the public. China’s water problems. Access & delivery increased but quality uncertain They say that in provincial capitals and big cities in developed In the wake of the anticipated ‘Water Pollution Prevention and problems”. In second and third-tier cities as well as medium Control Action Plan’, which prioritizes drinking water safety, to small towns, water safety development is “patchy”, but has China Water Risk and chinadialogue took a closer look at been improving. In rural areas, there has been rapid progress the actual status of urban and rural drinking water in China. with collective water supply. Problems with the “Three Highs”, The report finds that some urban water quality remains namely high concentrations of fluorine, arsenic and salt found unreliable, while rural areas face many challenges in meeting in water in some rural areas, have largely been resolved. requirements that are less stringent than those for urban areas. Meanwhile, rural drinking water improvement works to stem eastern coastal regions, water safety “essentially has no pollution are also progressing. Drinking water is at the end of the water supply chain. It follows that to achieve high drinking water quality requires In this portrait of China’s drinking water safety landscape, comprehensive standards, policies and regulations to be in improvements in water quality have been radiating out from place governing the entire supply chain from source-to-tap. the big cities to smaller cities and towns. In reality, however, Water source protection was included in China’s ambitious information on rural areas remains limited; the rural waterscape plan to safeguard safe drinking water in the 12FYP while is shrouded in fog. targets were set for both 2015 and 2020. 4 A China Water Risk / chinadialogue Report: CHINA’S LONG MARCH TO SAFE DRINKING WATER Furthermore, beyond this largely positive macro-level overview undertaken on the health impacts when they are absorbed of China’s drinking water safety, on a local-level the real status of through drinking water. water safety in each city, town, county or village remains unclear. Official information disclosure on water quality is poor, and the As this report points out, many obstacles need to be addressed in government keeps official tests and monitoring data secret. China’s long march to safe drinking water. China faces problems Although water supply enterprises have been publishing their water of ambiguous ownership, unclear water pricing mechanisms, quality test data, there is room for improvement in test frequency, immature market mechanisms and a lack of rural business the number of published indicators and public interfaces. models, among other issues. There are also governance challenges with dispersed and overlapping responsibilities among various departments and across ministries. LOCAL CONCERNS Given the current situation of “nine dragons managing water“, Against this backdrop, civil society groups have resorted many people are expecting to see reforms to the government's to self-testing drinking water to obtain water quality data. administrative systems for water management. This would A recent report from the China Water Safety Foundation mean establishing a water management and coordination shows that only half of the 29 big and medium-sized cities mechanism across different government bodies. A drinking it surveyed passed the test on all 20 selected indicators from water monitoring system at both national and local levels is the National Drinking Water Standard; one city failed the tests clearly required, as are a water quality technology framework on 4 indicators. These test results, together with all other civic from source-to-tap; supervision and early warning systems; monitoring actions, do not give a comprehensive picture of and integrated watershed management. This report hopes drinking water safety, but they are enough to point out the these needs will be addressed in the coming ‘Water Pollution risks and challenges ahead. Prevention and Control Action Plan’. Public self-monitoring movement growing in response to lack of data The health and environmental implications of unsafe water are already evident. In some cases, the health impacts have geological causes due to naturally occurring arsenic, fluorine and salt. But elsewhere, they result from human activity and pollution. In recent years, Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), environmental hormones and other toxic organic pollutants have been detected in drinking water, causing widespread public concern. These chemicals are not yet effectively monitored, partly because not enough research has been 5 A China Water Risk / chinadialogue Report: CHINA’S LONG MARCH TO SAFE DRINKING WATER URBAN DRINKING WATER SAFETY: PRIVILEGE OF 600 MILLION PEOPLE PART I: URBAN DRINKING WATER SAFETY: THE PRIVILEGE OF 600 MILLION PEOPLE PART I: URBAN DRINKING WATER SAFETY: PRIVILEGE OF 600 MILLION PEOPLE On 14 June 2012, the MOHURD and the NDRC jointly issued, makes it one of the strictest drinking water quality ‘12FYP National Urban Water Supply Infrastructure Retrofitting standards globally. & Construction & 2020 Targets’. The plan states that during New national standard introduced the 12FYP, China will invest RMB 410 billion into urban water supply to achieve the long-term goal of a stable standard of Still, given the complexity of the drinking water situation drinking water in urban areas by 2020. in China, the new national standard was not immediately enforced after it was issued. The time frame for enforcement In theory, if water reaches this standard then Chinese urban was extended to 1 July 2012, providing a transition period residents can simply turn on the tap and drink the water for upgrades to meet this new standard.1 The government directly without having to boil or disinfect it first, as is now expects cities across China to meet this national standard common practice. by 2015.2 In 2007, the MoH and the Standardization Administration It was in this context that the aforementioned RMB 410 billion of P.R. China released the latest ‘National Drinking investment plan was introduced. The public draft of this plan Water Quality Standard’ (GB 5749-2006). Compared shows the expected allocation of the RMB 410 billion total with the old version issued in 1985, the new standard investment: RMB 46.5 billion for the upgrading of existing saw a substantial increase in the number of indicators/ water plants, RMB 83.5 billion for network transformation, parameters, jumping from 35 to 106. The original limits RMB94 billion for new water plants, RMB 184.3 billion for new of some existing indicators were also raised. This revision, pipe network, RMB1.5 billion for water evaluation regulatory which had been delayed for 20 years, is now not only capacity building, and RMB200 million for emergency China’s most stringent water quality standard, but also capability of water supply.3 7 A China Water Risk / chinadialogue Report: CHINA’S LONG MARCH TO SAFE DRINKING WATER PART I: URBAN DRINKING WATER SAFETY: THE PRIVILEGE OF 600 MILLION PEOPLE This was the Chinese government’s largest-ever investment China’s urban water quality. Now, eight years after the for one single public service. However, some scholars have new standard was released, it remains unclear whether pointed out that the investment mainly focuses on water and water quality has improved or not. The effectiveness of pipe network retrofitting rather than management systems the huge investment made by the Chinese government is improvement and is unlikely to guarantee success. also under wraps. On 30 July 2014, the international scientific journal ‘Nature’ Although public discussions around drinking water safety have magazine published an article entitled ‘A sustainable plan slowly died down, the Chinese people are still concerned about for China's drinking water’.4 The article points out that as a water quality. On 1 December 2014, Xylem (an American developing country, infrastructure-focused solutions to ensure water technology provider) and H2O-China (a Chinese water drinking water safety are unsuitable for China. Instead, water platform) jointly issued the ‘2014 Value of Water Index: China’. sources protection and clean-up as well as the development The report states that among 2,000 consumers and industry of water recycling would be more effective. experts from cities such as Beijing, Guangzhou, Taiyuan and Changsha, over 70% were concerned about drinking water Some scholars think China is on the wrong path to drinking water safety safety and related health impacts.5 The authors, Professor Tao Tao and Associate Professor Xin The reality is that water supply, as a public service provided Kunlun, both from the College of Environmental Sciences by the government, is not equally provided in China, where and Engineering of Tongji University, warned that China a decade of rapid urbanization has resulted in hundreds of should not follow the technology-focused path of developed millions of farmers moving into cities, but there are still about countries. Yet, the overall aim of safe drinking water from 700 million people living in rural areas6. The huge investment taps means China has focused on treatment technologies in urban water supply of course only targets urban residents, and pipeline upgrading. However, this will result in large which account for 54% of the total population. Even in urban volumes of high-quality treated water being wasted in toilet areas, public water services cover about 91% of residents, so flushing and cleaning. there are still around 70 million urban dwellers without access to adequate water supply services7. The Nature article also points out that China will remain a developing country up to 2050 and meanwhile, urban expansion will outpace the improvements in water supply systems. Thus, the approach adopted by China will not only Investment in urban water supply only targets 54% of total population; still ~70 million urban residents without access use up vast amounts of energy, but also will be expensive and consume quantities of chemicals. Unfortunately, after the release of data from two urban water quality surveys by the MOHURD and MoH in 2012, these two ministries have not disclosed any new information about 8 A China Water Risk / chinadialogue Report: CHINA’S LONG MARCH TO SAFE DRINKING WATER PART I: URBAN DRINKING WATER SAFETY: THE PRIVILEGE OF 600 MILLION PEOPLE WATER SOURCES: DRINKING CONTAMINATED WATER? sources is improving steadily. In 2011, a survey carried out by the MEP about the centralized drinking water sources of prefecture-level cities and above showed that water sources accounting for 11.4% of supply failed the water quality test. No matter urban or rural, water sources are threatened by pollution. In reality, water source standards and regulations are often ignored and water companies have no choice but to use contaminated water. By the first half of 2014, this figure had gone down to 3.8%. A closer look at MEP’s data regarding different types of water sources shows that 94.3% of surface water sources meet requirements, with the main exceptions being excessive levels of phosphorus, ammonia and manganese. Of underground water sources, however, only 87.6% were reported to China produces almost 70 billion tonnes of wastewater meet requirements. The main challenges there were iron, annually (excluding agricultural wastewater)8. As ‘the world’s manganese and ammonia.10 factory’, China is one of the highest consumers and emitters of many heavy metals, compounds and other industrial raw If for the moment we don’t consider both the scope of the materials. Survey data in recent years show that toxic organic investigation and the statistical differences from inconsistencies pollutants can be found in China’s major rivers, lakes and other between statistical and evaluation criteria, then drinking bodies of water. On the Yangtze and Songhua rivers basin water quality in towns and cities over the past few years has alone, 107 kinds of toxic and hazardous organic pollutants were undoubtedly seen a significant improvement. However, a detected9. The goal of ensuring drinking water safety in China key question needs to be addressed: How exactly is a water must overcome a huge challenge: To treat one of the world’s source considered to ‘meet standard’? most complex water sources to a level that complies with one China has never issued a specific ‘Drinking Water Source of the world’s strictest drinking water quality standards. Quality Standard’. Water source quality is managed by the As the unit in charge of urban water supply, the MOHURD is ‘Surface Water Environmental Quality Standard’ (GB 3838- not afraid of being embarrassed. A senior expert in the field 2002) or ‘Groundwater Quality Standard’ (GB/T 14848-93), of water supply and drainage revealed to China Water Risk/ depending on the type of source. The ‘National Drinking Water chinadialogue that the Vice Minister of MOHURD, Mr. Qiu Quality Standard’ only makes reference to relevant provisions Baoxing has said that improving China’s drinking water quality in these two existing environmental quality standards of is actually a fight against environmental pollution. But, if water surface water and groundwater. sources cannot be well managed for the time being, he was reported to have said that China at least needs to ensure that Some industry experts believe that the fact there is no clear standard people can have drinking water that meets the established to measure water source quality, makes the conclusion of a water standards flowing from the taps. source ‘meeting standard’ actually very ambiguous. This means that, although it looks like the water source quality compliance rate Looking at water sources quality survey results released by has been rising, it’s actually totally useless to understand the actual the MEP, it would appear as though the quality of urban water situation of water source quality because there are no standards. 9 A China Water Risk / chinadialogue Report: CHINA’S LONG MARCH TO SAFE DRINKING WATER PART I: URBAN DRINKING WATER SAFETY: THE PRIVILEGE OF 600 MILLION PEOPLE If we take surface water sources as an example, according problem. Already back in 2010, the MEP in conjunction with to the MEP’s ‘Management Measures for Pollution Prevention NDRC, MOHURD, MWR and MoH jointly issued China's first and Control in Drinking Water Source Protection Zones’, drinking water sources environmental protection plan: ‘National certain areas near to sources of drinking water are designated Urban Drinking Water Source Environmental Protection Plan as Class I drinking water source protection zones. Here, the (2008-2020)’. This was intended to mobilize RMB58 billion water must reach the Class II requirement as per the Surface with the intention of solving the substandard polluted water Water Environmental Quality Standard. Outside the Class source quality. I zone, there are Class II protection zones, where the water quality of surface water should at least meet Class III surface Additionally, the ‘National Groundwater Pollution Prevention water environmental standards.11 & Control Plan (2011-2020)’ aims to invest a total of RMB34.66 billion. The main goals of this investment are to According to ‘Surface Water Environmental Quality Standard’ conduct and develop investigations of groundwater pollution, (GB3838-2002), surface water quality is divided into a total to do work related to the prevention of groundwater pollution of five Classes (I-V), with Class I being the best. Compared to and to remedy environmental safety issues related to using Class III water, Class II water requirements of permanganate, groundwater as drinking water. The ‘National Plan to Ensure chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonia, mercury, lead, Urban Drinking Water Safety (2011-2020)’ led by the MoH cyanide, volatile phenol, petroleum and other more stringent and the ‘12FYP National Urban Water Supply Infrastructure toxicological indicators mean better water quality. As a Retrofitting & Construction & 2020 Targets’ led by the MOHURD centralized water source, surface water quality needs to meet also clearly focus on work to strengthen the protection of the requirements of 80 toxicological indicators. drinking water sources. In January 2015 during a telephone conversation between It is also worth noting that although various ministries have a staff member of the Drinking Water Office of the MEP and plans that are in some way related to the protection of China Water Risk / chinadialogue, the officer candidly said:”In drinking water sources, at the moment the main regulatory reality, some drinking water sources can only meet Class III responsibility still falls on the head of the MEP and the MWR. water quality requirements”. When we look at each of the ministries in turn, it’s clear that the MEP’s ability to invest is considerably less, and thus this “China does not have many water bodies at Class II level”, government organ mainly performs surveillance functions. according to Wang Zhansheng, a professor with the Work related to water protection projects, reservoirs and Department of Environment Science and Engineering at water diversion project construction is mainly carried out Tsinghua University. “If the requirements of Class II are by the MWR. followed strictly, then probably only up to one-half of surface water sources can meet the Class II level”. Take the South-to-North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP) as an example. After water is diverted from the South to Beijing, At the planning level, the central government has announced the water is allocated by the head office of the SNWTP a series of plans and measures to tackle the water source Eastern Route company. After the allocated water reaches the 10 A China Water Risk / chinadialogue Report: CHINA’S LONG MARCH TO SAFE DRINKING WATER PART I: URBAN DRINKING WATER SAFETY: THE PRIVILEGE OF 600 MILLION PEOPLE reservoir, it is then transported to the water company. “During Under certain conditions algae will release algal toxins into the the water transferral, there are issues related to transfer and water. These toxic substances can be very difficult to remove also ownership”, said Mr. Xue Tao, the deputy director of the and can be a leading risk factor in causing liver cancer, as well Water Industry Policy Research Centre of Tsinghua University. as hepatitis. Aflatoxin, which also can cause cancer, can be present as well.13 In the eastern coastal areas such as Qidong “[If] there are problems with the water source, is it the city in Jiangsu province, Tongan city in Fujian province, Shunde responsibility of the MEP for its bad management or the city in Guangdong province, and Fusui city in Guangxi province, MWR’s poor planning? It is clearly not the responsibility of one there is a high prevalence of liver cancer, which is confirmed single government body. The reality is more complex”, said to be linked to drinking water contaminated with microcystin Mr. Xue Tao. and other toxins.14 Another water challenge in China is the prevalence of Xue Tao, Deputy Director of the Water Industry Policy Research Centre at Tsinghua University antibiotics in surface water. Normally Illegal discharges from the livestock and pharmaceutical industries are blamed “[If] there are problems with the water source… It is clearly for this. But a researcher with the National Institute of Environmental Health and Related Product at the Chinese not the responsibility of one single government body. Center for Disease Control and Prevention asked China Water The reality is more complex” Risk/ chinadialogue, “Is there any connection to the abuse of Some scholars have pointed out that the management of water sources should build upon what could have been improved upstream. The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and the MoH should also bear the appropriate regulatory antibiotics? If there is, then shouldn’t the MoH stand up and take some responsibility?” Antibiotics in surface water is a challenge but related data is usually a “state secret” responsibility. This line of thinking is not without basis. In order to obtain more information about the latest China is one of the world's biggest users of pesticides and fertilizers. Indeed, the amount of pesticides used per unit of arable land is three times the world average with comparatively low efficiency. A spokesperson of the MoA said that only about 30% of the applied pesticides reach the target agriculture, while the remaining 70% are released into the environment.12 This means that the vast majority of pesticides and fertilizers end up flowing into soil and bodies of water. After large volumes of nitrogen and phosphorus enter surface water, lakes, rivers and reservoirs, the consequences are not efforts to protect urban water sources, China Water Risk/ chinadialogue requested that the MEP publish results from the mid-term evaluation of the ‘National Urban Drinking Water Source Environmental Protection Plan (2008-2020)’. A ministry staff responded in a phone call that the midterm evaluation was conducted by the Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences, but the results were classified as ‘state secret’. The results are not available to the public and are instead only used for reference during the government decision-making process. just ‘eutrophication’ or ‘algae outbreak’. 11 A China Water Risk / chinadialogue Report: CHINA’S LONG MARCH TO SAFE DRINKING WATER PART I: URBAN DRINKING WATER SAFETY: THE PRIVILEGE OF 600 MILLION PEOPLE WATERWORKS: A HEAVY BURDEN on the one side, and high pressure to reach tough new national standards on the other. Waterworks are in an awkward position in the middle of the water supply chain. Water from substandard sources makes the treatment process more difficult. Conventional water treatment processes are insufficient to remove some of the more complex elements found in China’s water. There is an advanced treatment process that is better equipped to do this but investment costs are too high. At present, only 5% of urban water goes through the advanced treatment process – ideally this figure should be 20%. Water supply companies are stuck in the middle A spokesperson from a low-level water supply company told Caixin ‘Century Weekly’ magazine: “Any company that does not get “qualified raw materials” can suspend production - but not waterworks. Instead waterworks have to operate 24 hours a day to supply drinking water that meets the standard”.16 Mr. Fu Tao, the director of the Water Industry Policy Research Centre at Tsinghua University, believes that the conventional three-stage water treatment process has been unable to respond effectively to the changed water sources. Water treatment and production process as well as management In the debate surrounding water treatment, New York and maintenance all need to be modified appropriately by City is often used as a case study. But the comparison is water supply companies. Compared to big cities, small and not a good one since New York City is mainly supplied medium-sized cities face bigger challenges in this regard. with relatively clean spring water and rainwater collected in reservoirs and controlled lakes. 15 Additionally, there is The conventional process consists of a three-stage treatment not much heavy industry near the drinking water sources including: sedimentation, filtration and disinfection. This and consequently the city’s water doesn’t require century-old process works well with qualified water sources advanced treatment. Conventional treatment processes but is limited in its ability to purify water from complex water are sufficient. sources. It is almost useless in removing heavy metals and toxicological substances. Advanced treatment is based on Most Chinese cities, by contrast, do not have a generous the principles of the conventional process with the addition supply of high-quality water sources. In reality, the of ozone activated carbon and membrane treatment choices facing the vast majority of Chinese water supply technologies. These are used to remove complex organic and companies are not whether water sources should be inorganic contaminants. treated, but instead how much money should be spent to do so and how complex the treatment process should Fu Tao has said, “Water is not as difficult to treat as air is. As be in order to get the water quality up to standard. long are we are willing to invest, it is technologically possible to do it. Water source is easy to analyze and relatively stable Water supply companies are stuck in the middle of the and relevant technologies can also be adjusted. Regarding the supply chain with water arriving at substandard quality complex water sources such as Class III water, an additional 12 A China Water Risk / chinadialogue Report: CHINA’S LONG MARCH TO SAFE DRINKING WATER PART I: URBAN DRINKING WATER SAFETY: THE PRIVILEGE OF 600 MILLION PEOPLE fifty cents of treatment cost (per tonne of water) is enough to In 2012, when the new national standards were to be process the water”. enforced, only 2% of China’s water supply companies had the facilities to carry out advanced water treatment. During an interview with China Water Risk/ chinadialogue, the director Fu Tao, Director of the Water Industry Policy Research Centre at Tsinghua University of the Safe Drinking Water Institute of Tsinghua University, Mr. Liu Wenjun, revealed that, as of early 2015 only about 5% of “Water is not as difficult to treat as air is. As long are we are willing to invest, it is technologically possible to do it.” waterworks have the facilities for advanced water treatment. In Jiangsu province, the provincial government has been planning to promote ‘ozone-activated carbon’ technology The consensus within the Chinese water industry is that as across the province. long as water sources meet the Class II criteria, they will meet the basic national quality standards - even if water only goes through the century-old traditional treatment process. However, in the current situation whereby three different types of water source are being used, only water that has gone through pre-treatment and the advanced treatment process can be As we can see, the penetration rate of advanced water treatment has increased from 2% to 5%, but that is still far from the actual demand. Song Lan, the chief engineer at the Urban Water Quality Monitoring Centre of the MOHURD, estimates that at least 20-30% of waterworks in China need to adopt advanced treatment processes as soon as possible.17 ensured to meet factory-produced water quality standards. So what role can water treatment play? Desalination and water recycling technologies are often pointed to as possible Penetration rate of advanced water treatment now 5% but should be at least 20-30% solutions. According to Fu Tao, the base cost of recycling wastewater into drinking water is only RMB2 per tonne of water and processing seawater into highly pure water is only RMB4 per tonne of water. “The crux of the problem is in how However, Liu Wenjun says that not all waterworks need to have advanced treatment to guarantee good water quality. Instead, different waterworks should choose the technology relevant to the circumstance. much the waterworks are willing to invest”, he said. From this perspective, it is not hard to see why China wants to embark on the ‘technology-focused’ path previously trodden by developed countries, instead of focusing more on water Regarding the cost of constructing advanced water treatment facilities and the differing scales of water treatment, the upgrades could cost anywhere from millions to hundreds of millions of yuan. According to Mr. Liu Baohong, the Secretary- source protection and pollution control. General of the China Water Supply Service Promotion Alliance, In the ‘12FYP National Urban Water Supply Infrastructure Retrofitting & Construction & 2020 Targets’ released by the MOHURD, investments are directed towards infrastructure. For water supply companies, ‘waterworks retrofitting’ and ‘emergency capacity funding for the construction of advanced water treatment facilities should be partly provided by the government and partly provided by the private sector, with the remainder being borne within the cost of water itself. building’ all refer to upgrading to advance treatment capability. 13 A China Water Risk / chinadialogue Report: CHINA’S LONG MARCH TO SAFE DRINKING WATER PART I: URBAN DRINKING WATER SAFETY: THE PRIVILEGE OF 600 MILLION PEOPLE China Water Risk/ chinadialogue learned that during the development and since this has been carried out by and planning stages of the Guogongzhuang waterworks, the brought benefits to the government, they should be the ones Beijing municipal government was hesitant to include the to pay. Liu Wenjun emphasizes that “water is a basic human membrane treatment process in part because of the cost. need; it’s not an optional requirement”. Investment in this process alone would amount to several hundred million yuan. This process is also not actually required to achieve the water quality standard, representing something Liu Wenjun, Director of the Safe Drinking Water Institute of Tsinghua University more akin to the ‘icing on the cake’, said Liu Wenjun. However, considering the potential public health investment reduction due to improved water quality, it was finally decided that the “water is a basic human need; it’s not an optional requirement” membrane treatment should be included. Other scholars think that the price of water should be But not every waterworks is as fortunate as Guogongzhuang to obtain the financial support of local governments to carry out such retrofitting. The reality facing China’s water industry is that water supply companies are facing large financial losses; funds from the central government are limited; local increased so that consumers bear the costs. This would help to improve the current bleak financial situation of water supply businesses. Only in this way can the vicious cycle of low cost, low quality water be broken and instead replaced with a positive, sustainable cycle of improved water services. government support differs across the country and there are many difficulties facing water price reform. Until the end of 2011, 31% of public water supply companies faced loss and their debt ratio was higher than 50%.18 Mixed views on who should bear costs; Limited government funds and 31% public supply companies face loss According to the ‘12FYP National Urban Water Supply Infrastructure Retrofitting & Construction & 2020 Targets’, China plans to encourage financing through multiple channels. This includes local financial capital investments, water price adjustment, private investments and central government subsidies and investments. Some academics believe that advanced water treatment costs should be covered by government rather than by businesses or private individuals. The thinking behind this view is that water pollution problems have been caused by economic 14 A China Water Risk / chinadialogue Report: CHINA’S LONG MARCH TO SAFE DRINKING WATER PART I: URBAN DRINKING WATER SAFETY: THE PRIVILEGE OF 600 MILLION PEOPLE INTO THE HOME: SECONDARY POLLUTION IS YET TO BE SOLVED Discoloured water, excess bacteria, chlorine & turbity are why people don’t drink from the tap Secondary pollution caused by the pipe network and secondary water supply is the biggest reason why water in homes is not up to standard. Excessive levels of bacteria, chlorine and turbidity brought into the water by secondary pollution are the main reasons why Chinese water can’t be used directly from the tap. MOHURD has put substantial investments into retrofitting the pipe network but unclear ownership is disrupting proceedings. Sanitation standards of the secondary water supply lag far behind where they should be. Recent studies have shown that the distribution pipes in the water supply system as well as the household water supply network and secondary water supply units are the parts of the system that represent the worst water quality deterioration. These are key areas that need to be targeted in order to protect water quality and safety. Transmission and distribution pipes, pipe network scale and structure and the operation and maintenance of the pipe network all have an impact on the quality of water.19 In 2008, when Beijing was using emergency water resources from Hebei province, the tap water in some areas was yellow in colour. This meant the local government had to look for solutions, including exempting water charges and bringing in water by tankers. Even if water produced by water supply companies reaches the ‘National Drinking Water Quality Standard’, this doesn’t mean that residents will be able to drink straight from the tap. The reason for this is the secondary pollution that contaminates According to a group of experts, the cause of the yellow water was secondary pollution created by the pipe network. The reason was identified as the difference in the water composition of the Hebei Huangbizhuang reservoir water water during transmission through the pipe network. and the regular water supply. The Hebei reservoir water was National census data from 2011 published by the MOHURD shows that water from waterworks has a standard compliance rate of 83%, found to have much higher concentrations of sulphate and chlorine. The lower alkaline level of the water increased its corrosiveness, messing up the pH balance of the pipe lining whereas the tap water standard compliance rate is only 79.6%. in the pipe network. This damaged the pipes’ protective lining Liu Wenjun told China Water Risk/ chinadialogue that the substandard drinking water mainly lies at the end of supply and caused a layer of rust to be released into the water, creating the ‘yellow water’ that came out of the taps. chain, not when it leaves the water treatment plant. Rather, he said, the main reasons tap water fails quality tests are an excess of bacteria, chlorine and turbidity. These are related to the pipe network and the secondary water supply. “These three factors are directly responsible for the fact that people can’t drink China’s water directly from the tap”, he said. 15 An event on this scale is not common in China. But there have been various instances nationwide where tap water turned yellow, white, murky, smelled like bleach, presented as oily, or even contained moss or red worms. In all cases, the reasons could mostly be traced back to the pipe network A China Water Risk / chinadialogue Report: CHINA’S LONG MARCH TO SAFE DRINKING WATER PART I: URBAN DRINKING WATER SAFETY: THE PRIVILEGE OF 600 MILLION PEOPLE and ‘secondary pollution’ from the secondary water supply some poor areas, central government funding helped, while network, observers have said. for other regions it was supported by local government investment. In some areas, the construction was solely According to the ‘12FYP National Urban Water Supply financed by water companies; while in some older districts, Infrastructure Retrofitting & Construction & 2020 Targets’, the cost of the main pipeline network was included in the many of the pipelines in China have been in service for over land development fee. In light of unresolved ownership 50 years and are made from antiquated materials. Thus, water and liability disputes, promoting the retrofitting of the pipe coming from the pipe network is of lower quality than water network will meet with some difficulties. straight from the waterworks. Secondary water supply is also controversial for other reasons. Beyond quality issues, there are problems that relate to pipeline In many parts of China, water supply companies can only leakages. Burst pipes are a common occurrence, sometimes directly supply water to users up to a certain floor in a building. affecting the water supply across whole cities. Secondary Residents living on higher floors often must use secondary water supply facilities are mainly roof tanks and underground water supplies from residential tanks, compression devices cisterns where sanitation is bad. Secondary pollution is a real and other water storage methods. risk and is seriously affecting the urban water supply. Unlike the pipe network, the secondary water supply is During the 12FYP period, the MOHURD required that pipes in regulated by the MoH, generally through local Disease Control use for over 50 years and made out of gray cast iron, asbestos Centres. In 1997 the MoH put forward the ‘Secondary Water or concrete be replaced. This came to a total of 92,300 Supply Hygiene Standard’. The proposed standard outlined kilometres of pipe, equivalent to circling the earth more than that water provided by secondary water supply facilities should twice. In addition, the MOHURD wanted to renovate some of not have sensory properties that adversely affect people; the secondary water supply facilities with high risk potential, should not contain toxic and hazardous substances harmful affecting 13.9 million urban residents. to human health; and should not cause intestinal infectious Pipes still leaking; During 12FYP 92,300 km to be replaced – enough to circle the earth twice diseases or epidemics. But, in practice, it is not uncommon for secondary water supply “Of the RMB410 billion total investment, 60% is going towards tanks to be infested with cockroaches and rodents, and they the retrofitting of the pipe network”, a water industry expert are also sometimes covered with moss. As the 1985 version told China Water Risk/ chinadialogue. However, because the of the ‘National Drinking Water Quality Standard’ referred specific use of funds laid out in the 12FYP and the proportion to is no longer in effect, the clauses it contained regarding of financing from various channels is unknown, it’s difficult to secondary water supply are no longer in effect. Thus, there accurately analyze the funding of the pipe network retrofitting. is an urgent need to update the “Secondary Water Supply Hygiene Standard” to include these “lost clauses” to improve Xue Tao said that, historically urban water pipe network secondary water supply quality. construction was funded through several channels. For 16 A China Water Risk / chinadialogue Report: CHINA’S LONG MARCH TO SAFE DRINKING WATER PART I: URBAN DRINKING WATER SAFETY: THE PRIVILEGE OF 600 MILLION PEOPLE STANDARDS: HOW CLEAN DOES WATER NEED TO BE, TO BE ‘SAFE’? water standards will be met. This is particularly true given the context that waterworks find it hard consistently to reach standards. Thus realistically, it’s very difficult to enforce and The ‘National Drinking Water Quality Standard’, deemed the most stringent standard ever, lacked basic research into both environmental health risks and cost-benefit analysis. This means that the standard overestimated what China could realistically achieve. achieve national standards. Public expectations to meet all 106 indicators are high Another criticism of the new national standards is that the ‘National Drinking Water Quality Standard’ lacks both supporting technical guidelines and an input-output efficiency evaluation. Liu Wenjun holds this view. He told China Water Risk/ chinadialogue that when assessing the limitations of In recent years, there have been a lot of discussions each indicator, the evaluation should include a calculation of surrounding drinking water safety, but all conversation gets the funds needed to achieve the target as well as the health stuck on the topic of the ‘National Drinking Water Quality risks involved. Standard’. Meeting the standard has become the yardstick by which the government evaluates and guarantees drinking He outlined the example of Bozhou in Anhui province. Due water safety. Public expectations have already risen to expect to excessive sodium levels in tap water, the local government water quality to meet all the 106 indicators with which drinking was questioned by higher government authorities. Large water needs to comply. At the same time, the public and the investments had to be made to retrofit the waterworks with media have also started to express concern about additional reverse osmosis equipment. toxic substances not included in the standard. “Sodium itself is not very toxic and does not represent a big In academic and industrial circles, a reasonable level of doubt threat to human health. Then is it worthwhile to invest this about the 106 indicators persists. During interviews with China money in order to meet the standard? It’s not easy to judge”, Water Risk/ chinadialogue, many scholars questioned China’s asked Liu Wenjun. new national standard. For example, some indicators they felt were too harsh whereas others were considered too lenient, In addition to funding challenges, achieving drinking water meaning that adhering to the standard could still result in risk quality standards and increasing the capacity for advanced to human health. But in reality, 106 indicators are already treatment increases the energy consumption of water supply simply too many to cover, particularly as some are just listed, companies. That is inconsistent with China’s current energy with no matching technologically feasible standards. consumption reduction policies. Some scholars have said that because China’s water sources, By the end of the 12FYP, all waterworks across Jiangsu province water treatment processes, pipe networks and secondary are planned to be equipped with ozone activated carbon water supplies are far from satisfactory, it’s hard to guarantee advanced treatment facilities. In the Nature article, Professor 17 A China Water Risk / chinadialogue Report: CHINA’S LONG MARCH TO SAFE DRINKING WATER PART I: URBAN DRINKING WATER SAFETY: THE PRIVILEGE OF 600 MILLION PEOPLE Tao Tao from Tongji University estimated the potential carbon organic compounds in U.S. water sources, with 756 types emissions this initiative could produce. If a quarter of the water found in drinking water. Of these, 20 are carcinogenic, 23 supply went through the treatment process, carbon emissions are suspected carcinogens, 18 kinds are tumour-promoting would rise by 28%, she was quoted as estimating. compounds and 56 are mutation-promoting compounds. In the current situation where the existing standards are The situation in China may be equally, if not more complex not yet widely and consistently met, toxic substances but this kind of analysis is limited by detection technology other than the 106 indicators included in the new national and lack of funding. Therefore, we have not yet seen such standard are regularly detected. These include antibiotics, exhaustive analysis of natural water bodies and drinking environmental hormones, persistent organic compounds water from Chinese government or academic institutions. (POPs), perfluorinated organic compounds and polycyclic Regarding the monitoring of water source quality, the aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Of these, POPs and PAHs capacity and capability also vary among different areas, have been clearly classified as hazardous substances. Public subject to funding. health concerns have sparked the calls for higher water quality standards, particularly an expansion in the detection and Some research institutions such as the South China monitoring of toxic and hazardous substances. Institute of Environmental Sciences, have established Toxic substances outside of the 106 indicators are regularly detected a ‘Water Source Risk Control System’ on the Pearl River Basin. The deputy director, Xuzhen Cheng, revealed that beyond the106 regular indicators they are also monitoring In December 2014, China’s national television CCTV 202 additional indicators that are not required by the reported that Nanjing’s tap water contained amoxicillin. This standard, including heavy metals, antibiotics, environmental and other antibiotics were detected in the Huangpu River.20 hormones and pesticides. This dynamic monitoring system In April 2014, the magazine ‘Science China’ published a can help companies that currently emit biologically toxic review showing that 158 kinds of pharmaceuticals and other substances to improve their practices and can be of use in personal care products were found in China’s rivers, lakes future water quality risk management. and other natural water bodies. These included 68 kinds of antibiotics.21 In 2014, the environmental organization When faced with the controversy surrounding the ‘National Greenpeace conducted tests along the Yangtze River Drinking Water Quality Standard’, a researcher involved in Basin. Greenpeace found the environmental hormones, drafting the standard said that after the implementation of the perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) and bisphenol A, in the drinking new national health standards, the MoH and the MOHURD water sources of Chongqing, Wuhan and Nanjing City.22 jointly carried out water quality tests in more than 1,800 These contaminants might come from industrial discharge, waterworks. During these tests, only two out of the 106 agricultural runoff or municipal discharge. indicators could not be detected. According to the researcher, the results back up the rationality of the new drinking water According to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report, quality standard, as “it has caught the main problems” of the existing detection technology has found 2,221 types of drinking water. 18 A China Water Risk / chinadialogue Report: CHINA’S LONG MARCH TO SAFE DRINKING WATER PART I: URBAN DRINKING WATER SAFETY: THE PRIVILEGE OF 600 MILLION PEOPLE New drinking water quality standard “caught the main problems” but lacks “domestic tailoring” could help improve our understanding of both the toxicology of arsenic as well as the pathogenesis of cancer. However, this research was not approved. As for public concern related to antibiotics and environmental hormones, a researcher involved in the drafting of the 'National One of the drafters of the ‘National Drinking Water Quality Drinking Water Quality Standard' said he believed that, “it is Standard’, a researcher from the Chinese Centre for Disease currently difficult to set limits for antibiotics and contraceptives. Prevention and Control (CDC) E Xueli, spoke frankly to They are not the same as endocrine-disrupting substances China Water Risk/chinadialogue, saying that, “In the public and POPs. We still have no conclusion on which to say to health system, drinking water standards have never had what extent and in what way they can affect human health”. comprehensive support. Investment and research were lacking. As such, standard drafting had to rely on studies and In fact, these doubts can all be traced back to one source. information from other countries”. Although the new national standard drew on water quality standards publicized by the WHO, the EU and Japan, there A researcher involved in the drafting of the 'National Drinking Water Quality Standard' is a lack of support for basic domestic research. In particular, the standard lacked a toxicological study of all indicators and “In the public health system, drinking water standards an environmental health risk assessment. have never had comprehensive support. Investment and research were lacking.” The director of the Water Industry Policy Research Centre, Mr. Fu Tao, pointed out that, “If China wants to become a big The researcher told us that the CDC Control was informed in power, it must be responsible for its people.” China should 2005 about the revision of the drinking water quality standards research the relationship between water and health, as well and the target of releasing the new version in late 2006. The as the different impacts that each pollutant can have on the revision of the old standard, including testing standards, only human body. For example, in light of the rare earth pollution received RMB400,000 of funding, he said. issue, which is a problem unique to China, research should be conducted regarding the impact of chemical compounds From August to October 2010, three years after the release from the refining process. of the new national standard, the Chinese Academy of Urban Planning and Design, together with the Urban Water Quality The reality is that domestic research into interactions between Test Center of the MOHURD jointly conducted a nationwide environmental challenges and human health started late, has survey to test urban drinking water quality. Of the 284 insufficient funding and also faces political constraints. An waterworks that were tested, 51 didn’t meet the standard and environment and health researcher who started work in the the overall pass rate was 82.4%. In Hubei, Hunan, Henan, 1980s said that many studies related to environment and Heilongjiang and Jilin there were also cases where the raw health damage cannot be carried out in China. Take the high water was fine; however, the water from waterworks was incidence of skin cancer in the arsenic-contaminated area found to be substandard. in Shimen of Hunan province, for example. Good research 19 A China Water Risk / chinadialogue Report: CHINA’S LONG MARCH TO SAFE DRINKING WATER PART I: URBAN DRINKING WATER SAFETY: THE PRIVILEGE OF 600 MILLION PEOPLE WATER QUALITY: WHAT’S THE TRUTH? 51/284 tested waterworks in 2010 did not meet new national standard Until now, seven years after the enforcement of the new national standard, no new survey results have been released. Meanwhile, the MOHURD and the MoH also have not published any additional national drinking water quality monitoring data. The chief engineer of the Urban Water Quality Test Center of the MOHURD, Mr. Song Lanhe, told China Water Risk/ chinadialogue that according to the requirements of the The public is concerned about water quality. However, the water quality information channels are still poor and the government keeps official tests and monitoring data secret. The public has had to seek private tests for answers and these have exposed problems with water quality. Standardization Administration, there should be an evaluation of a national standard every five years in order to determine China Water Risk/ chinadialogue learned that during the whether any modification is necessary. middle of 2013, the MEP, MOHURD and MWR launched an evaluation of the implementation status of the 12FYP drinking Though Liu Wenjun said that the preliminary work to revise water safety targets. An important objective of this evaluation standards has started, a resource from the CDC, which was to figure out the gap between targets and performance in is responsible for the revision of the drinking water quality order to guide the works during the second half of the 12FYP. standard, said the institute has not yet received any order to Meanwhile, the results were also to be used to determine the start relevant tasks. targets for the 13FYP, currently in drafting. “The existing standard is still more strict than the actual Unfortunately, as mentioned earlier, these results were context”, said a researcher involved in the drafting of the classified as ‘state secret’ and not made available to the public. 'National Drinking Water Quality Standard'. The researcher This will be discussed at greater length later. said he believed that while Chinese environmental standards, emission standards and drinking water quality standards are Nevertheless, several industry experts with connections to aligned with those in the US, the state of the environment relevant ministries said that from 2012 until now, with so is not. “The environment in China is probably comparable to much invested, there surely are some improvements and that of the US 30-40 years ago”, he said. And while China generally, the improvements are significant. is gradually improving its environment to meet the national standards, revision of standards will not begin, he said. In fact, since 2004, the MOHURD has started to conduct an annual examination of urban water quality, including inter-regional crosscheck. The examination includes sample surveys of the water quality and emergency response systems. 23 Apart from the two-year data disclosed by the MOHURD-Water Quality Centre in 20 A China Water Risk / chinadialogue Report: CHINA’S LONG MARCH TO SAFE DRINKING WATER PART I: URBAN DRINKING WATER SAFETY: THE PRIVILEGE OF 600 MILLION PEOPLE 2012, these survey results have not been made public. coming out of the waterworks. As the supplier of tap water, the With regard to rural drinking water safety, information waterworks should also test the quality of both water into and made public is even rarer. leaving plants. So what does it mean if water isn’t up to standard? It means A much-harder-to-answer question associated with water risks, we believe. quality is: Who is publishing the testing data? When water quality meets standards, it means that the exposure As seen from public documents, responsible departments all to health risks from drinking the water is within a manageable publish data related to a number of key indicators. For drinking range. According to standard-setters, this ‘manageable range’ water sources, the MEP publishes national quality status in has a specific meaning. If we take cancer risks as an example, its monthly, quarterly, half-yearly and annual environmental it means that if everyone drinks 2 litres of tap water per day, reports. The MWR also publishes data related to the water over 70 years only 1 in 100,000 people will get cancer solely quality of major rivers, lakes and reservoirs in their annual from drinking the water. report. Some of these also represent drinking water sources. If standards are met, exposure to health risks are manageable For water supply, in recent years increasingly water service Despite the controversy around the specific indicators of the their official websites or in local media. In the past, such ‘National Drinking Water Quality Standard’, this still relates to reports often simply stated ‘100% meeting standards’, the quality of tap water, which is inextricably linked to everyone. whereas now water quality test reports of 42 or even 106 companies have regularly published water quality data on indicators are included. In terms of different uses of water, studies show that the main ways for water-borne contaminants to enter the human body However, from published data, can we really know the actual are through drinking, breathing and the skin. Each of these three quality of the urban drinking water? Our answer is: Hardly. channels accounts for roughly 1/3 of water-borne contaminants intake. About 30% of the contaminants found in water enter the It has been more than seven years since enforcement body through drinking, while the other 70% is taken in through of the new national standard was in effect, but the bathing, eating and other family hygiene channels. question of drinking water quality still hangs in the air and remains unknown. So who is testing the quality of our water and mitigating risk? Back in May 2012, two months before the new national This question isn’t hard to answer. At the water source end of standards came into force, Caixin’s ‘Century Weekly’ magazine the supply chain, the MWR and the MEP both carry out tests reported that the tap water in nearly 50% of China’s provincial and monitoring. In the water pipelines of the supply chain, the capitals did not meet the new standard.24 That was the first MOHURD and the MoH are in charge of testing the water. time Chinese media disclosed such information. During the water supply process, the MOHURD tests water 21 A China Water Risk / chinadialogue Report: CHINA’S LONG MARCH TO SAFE DRINKING WATER PART I: URBAN DRINKING WATER SAFETY: THE PRIVILEGE OF 600 MILLION PEOPLE This news was confirmed by data published by the MOHURD 2012 MoH Health Inspection Work conference. The pass on national water quality later in 2012. As shown in official rate was cited as 83%. After this, no more information was results, the MOHURD-Water Quality Centre tested water made public. quality from 4457 urban waterworks in 2009 - the pass rate for water from the waterworks was 58.2%. In 2011, another In early May 2013, a Nanjing-based NGO called ‘Nanjing random sampling survey was done and the pass rate rose to Tianxiagong (justice for all)’ applied to the health departments 83%. In addition, the pass rate for water quality at the user in 77 cities to disclose tap water quality monitoring data. end at the city and county level was 79.6%.25 Of the 57 cities that responded, only 17 provided relevant information and 10 cities replied saying that they couldn’t 24.8% increase in MOHURD waterworks pass rate from 2009-2011 raise doubts release the information. However, the increase in water quality from 58.2% in 2009 In January 2015, China Water Risk/ chinadialogue applied to 83% in 2011 raised some doubts. Among the skeptics to the National Health and Family Planning Commission was one report from the national media, ‘People’s Daily’, (“NHFPC”) to publish information related to the 2014 rural which questioned the credibility of the test results.26 In the drinking water monitoring tests and was told the information meantime, a public movement of self-testing tap water quality was temporarily unavailable for disclosure. The NHFPC was was started. The water quality in some provinces confirmed created in 2013 by merging the MoH and the National as meeting the standard, according to government data, was Population and Family Planning Commission. soon found less perfect in private tests. In cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Nanjing, there were numerous Water testing by individuals or civil environmental protection cases of people testing water quality on their own due to groups, however, hopefully will help reveal the truth related to distrust of official results. Civil society organizations continu to water quality. Since August 2013, the Shuguang Environmental urge local water supply companies to disclose water quality Charity Development Center in Changsha, Hunan province information but to no avail. has collected 166 drinking water samples in three cities (Changsha, Xiangtan and Zhuzhou) using an automatic 2012 was the first and last time the MOHURD published water quality-testing vehicle. The results showed that the the national tap water quality census data. According to Du water quality in Changsha and Xiangtan was up to standard. Ying, the Deputy Director of NDRC, since 2004 the MOHURD However, of the 40 samples taken in Zhuzhou city, 8 contained has been conducting annual monitoring of urban water permanganate levels 2-3 times higher than regulation and 1 quality, including inter-regional crosscheck and checking local sample contained arsenic at twice the regulation levels. emergency response systems based on random sampling.27 From November 2014 to January 2015, the China Water The MoH, another ministry monitoring urban water quality, Safety Foundation carried out water quality sample testing in has been even less open about results. In December 2012, 29 large and medium cities across the country. All 89 water the MoH published only once the results of a Chinese urban samples were taken from the end-source that people use in drinking water quality census. These results came at the their daily lives (tap water). This project tested 10 sensory 22 A China Water Risk / chinadialogue Report: CHINA’S LONG MARCH TO SAFE DRINKING WATER PART I: URBAN DRINKING WATER SAFETY: THE PRIVILEGE OF 600 MILLION PEOPLE and chemical indicators, 7 toxicological indicators, 2 microbial regular monitoring of drinking water quality showed good indicators and 1 organic indicator. The testing standard was standard compliance levels. Furthermore, quality supervision the new national standard. compliance rates reached 99.78% and quality monitoring pass rates were 92.3%. These sets of data are higher than the Results showed that of the 29 cities included in the survey, water quality pass rates previously issued by the MOHURD only Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and 10 (79.6%) and the MoH (83%). other cities passed all 20 indicators, making up 52% of the total city sample. Whereas Jinan, Changchun, Zhengzhou, The uncomfortable truth is that because water supply is Guangzhou, Xiamen, Chongqing and 8 other cities had a public service, waterworks will continue to supply water substandard results for one or more indicators, accounting for whether the water quality meets the standard or not. Only 48% of the total urban sample. Within this group, Changchun in cases of major incidents will waterworks choose to stop city failed in the tests of 4 indicators, with excess levels of total supplying water. This, of course, is not an easy decision for a residual chlorine, fluoride, turbidity and arsenic.28 waterworks to make. No matter the quality, water supply will continue except for major incidents On 30 October 2014, the MEP commented on several incidents of ‘excessive emergency response or unnecessary suspension of water uptake and supply’.29 From May to August 2014, waterworks in Taizhou (Jiangsu), Tonglu (Zhejiang) and Yibin (Sichuan) were named by the MEP because they suspended water supply due to unpleasant smells from water sources or chemicals (like tetrachloroethane) being dumped into rivers. The MEP criticized that, “not only has this been a huge inconvenience to people trying to get on with their daily lives, but it has also triggered mass panic and has affected In fact, the MoH led the development and issuing of the social stability”. ‘National Drinking Water Quality Standard”. Not only does the MoH have the responsibility to test and monitor the quality of These accidents aside, very rarely does producing substandard the water supply, the ministry also is responsible for testing water lead to serious punishment of waterworks. Of course and monitoring the quality during public emergencies. Every this isn’t to say that no punitive measures exist. There are a year, the MoH publishes the national drinking water quality number of sanctions for waterworks that cause water supply monitoring data in the ‘China Health Statistics Yearbook.’ accidents including: administrative penalties, fines and even the revoking of licenses. However, in case of water quality China Water Risk/ chinadialogue consulted the ‘China not meeting standards, it is not entirely clear who should be Health Statistics Yearbook (2013)’ and found that in 2012, punished and what the punishment should be. 23 A China Water Risk / chinadialogue Report: CHINA’S LONG MARCH TO SAFE DRINKING WATER PART I: URBAN DRINKING WATER SAFETY: THE PRIVILEGE OF 600 MILLION PEOPLE As the body in charge of monitoring drinking water quality, the MoH punished 357 cases under the charge ‘drinking water not up to hygiene standards’ in 2012 alone. The problems were mainly found in the collective/centralized water supply, which accounted for 91.6% of the cases.30 The ratio between these punishments and the number of regular drinking water quality supervision and monitoring samples that weren’t up to standard was 1:10. In other words, statistically for every 10 samples of substandard water found by the MoH, only one of them faced penalty. MoH punishes 1 in 10 for substandard monitoring samples A source involved in the drafting of the new national standards told China Water Risk/ chinadialogue that the new national standard, as a national regulation, should be enforced. However, since the day it was introduced, the standard hasn’t been strictly enforced. “If standards were strictly enforced, then failing in just one indicator would lead to stopping water production and would disrupt the water supply. But stopping water production would lead to societal chaos”. The source said he believed that drinking water was a public service product and shouldn’t be subject to the same standards as water that can be bought on the market. 24 A China Water Risk / chinadialogue Report: CHINA’S LONG MARCH TO SAFE DRINKING WATER mark. 022sz <<>4mm m>mm4