A 30-KILOMETER river belt connecting Shenzhen River, Shenzhen Bay, Xinzhou River and Futian River will be open to the public for free in two years. Local residents will be able to walk from Luohu Bridge all the way to Shekou along the river bank, said Wang Lixin, head of Shenzhen Municipal Water Resources Bureau, at the first Shenzhen Forum on Environment and Development on Sunday.

Wang said that downstream of Shenzhen River was already open to the public and he took a boat from Luohu Bridge along the Shenzhen River and Shenzhen Bay. Besides, the Xijiang River water project will become operational at the end of the year, providing an additional 700 million cubic meters of quality water per year to ensure the safety of residents’ drinking water.

Wang said 80 billion yuan (US$11.62 billion) will be earmarked to treat serious water pollution over the next five years. According to Wang, Shenzhen now has 32 sewage treatment plants with a daily sewage treatment capability of 5.2 million tons, which is 1 million tons more than the amount of daily sewage itself.

Wang attributed the current water pollution problem to the lack of systematic sewage treatment management. He cited the construction of the sewage pipeline network as an example. The construction of the 6,000-kilometer pipeline network in Maozhou River and Guanlan River basins was halted due to outstanding debts, accounting for half of the total length of the city’s pipelines. Meanwhile, illegal structures in Shenzhen make up 45 percent of the total residential buildings, and the demolition of their substandard drainage facilities will cost a whopping 1 to 2 billion yuan.

David Lerner, a fellow of the British Royal Academy of Engineering and a world renowned expert on water resources and environment, investigated the sewage treatment plants in Longgang District earlier this year. “The sewage, after treatment, is still polluted. Water pollution is serious in Shenzhen, therefore it needs 100 years of planning to treat it,” he said, adding that cities around the world face such problems, and London is still investing in sewage treatment.

Shenzhen Environment and Development Alliance, a result of the cooperation between South University of Science and Technology, Stanford University, California Institute of Technology and Chinese Academy of Sciences, was established to coincide with the forum and aims to turn itself into a world-class center for environment sciences and engineering research as well as a high-end think tank.

The forum was jointly organized by South University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen Municipal Human Settlements and Environment Commission, Shenzhen Municipal Science Technology and Innovation Commission and Shenzhen Municipal Water Resources Bureau.

(Yang Mei)