In Xishan District, Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province, there is a small white rice dang courtyard. The reporter recently came here recently, along the stone road, across the bridge, greeted by a large vegetable field hung with vegetables and fruits, next to the gurgling clean stream gushing out. Look at the field dyed green, vibrant scene, it is hard to imagine that this is the white rice dang rural sewage treatment site. It is understood that the daily sewage treatment capacity of this site reaches 50 tons, to meet the domestic sewage treatment needs of villagers in 7 natural villages in the surrounding area.

 Sewage treatment stations like Baimidang have blossomed in Xishan District, now covering more than 300 villages.

 Rural domestic sewage treatment project is an important livelihood project to improve rural living environment and promote rural revitalization. In 2020, Wuxi city, Jiangsu province xishan district start a new round of rural sewage treatment quality efficiency, the original rural sewage collection pipe network and sewage treatment facilities comprehensive renovation, and thus created the rural sewage treatment "xishan model", also included in the Jiangsu province 2022 top ten ecological environment governance reform innovation case.

So, how exactly does the "Xishan model" work? What are the innovations? The reporter visited this.

1 year + 8 years, to achieve rolling investment in distributed construction

 Rural domestic sewage treatment project is a livelihood project with obvious public welfare characteristics. The project construction needs funds, and the later operation also needs long-term investment, but the economic benefits are not obvious, and it is difficult to continue only by local finance.

 In 2009, Xishan District, as a pilot area in Wuxi, began to explore rural domestic sewage treatment. However, the early rural sewage treatment facilities copied the process route and method of urban sewage treatment, which is not consistent with the characteristics of rural sewage. In this round of improving quality and efficiency, if the reconstruction, the capital demand is huge. Government-leading, who will build it? And how to explore the diversified financing mechanism to make the capital investment sustainable?

 The government of Xishan District boldly explores, jointly builds the operation subject, and innovates the investment and financing mode.

 Xishan District government and Jiangsu Provincial Environmental Protection Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement, taking the lead in Jiangsu province to start the cooperation between provincial and local state-owned enterprises to establish a project company, and the district government granted the project company the right to invest, build and operate. We will coordinate state capital in provinces and cities to promote regional sewage treatment in rural areas.

The project construction adopts the (1 + 8) annual mode, according to the 1-year construction period and 8-year operation period, the project investment, construction and management, and a new round of investment and construction operation cycle when the expiration of 9 years. The annual investment can be adjusted according to the local financial resources and governance needs to realize the rolling investment in distributed construction.

"Rural sewage treatment projects have obvious characteristics of public welfare, and their operational assets have low weight, large capital investment and high operating costs. It is difficult for both enterprises and the government to maintain long-term investment."Zhou Songlin, deputy general manager of Qide Water Co., Ltd., the holding company of Jiangsu Environmental Protection Group, told reporters," We named the (1 + 8) annual model 'Xishan Model', which is very suitable for rural sewage treatment projects.”

"The 'Xishan Model' has obvious advantages, including financing, low interest rate and support, which is equivalent to the government purchase of services. Enterprises take the initiative to make profits, on the one hand, set a lower investment yield and reasonable payment cycle, on the other hand, extend the government payment cycle. Government funds can be invested in eight years, which not only reduces the financial pressure of the government, but also meets the requirements of high quality assessment."Zhou Songlin introduced that the overall cost of this model, compared to other models is also much lower.

"The agricultural pollution treatment project under the 'Xishan model' does not require any fees raised by the villagers themselves. For example, there are large vegetable plots and orchards around the Baimidang station, and the villagers can directly use the treated water to irrigate the land, which is economical and convenient."Zhou Songlin said.

 Household policies to focus on the demands of the masses

 Rural sewage treatment projects is complex and diversified, in addition to the overall system planning, according to local conditions is also the key. Through unified planning, unified design and unified construction, "Xishan Mode" realizes the systematic connection between pipe network and facilities, between pipe network and between facilities and facilities, so as to achieve the integrity, complementarity, coordination and forward-looking of planning and construction.

 There are 755 villages in Xishan District, each of which has different natural endowments and planning positioning. The rural domestic sewage treatment project combines the construction of beautiful countryside, considers the overall planning of the countryside and the comprehensive treatment of surrounding water bodies, upgrades the landscape, and realizes the overall improvement of the village appearance.

 In rural areas, there are scattered living areas, complex topography, difficult pipe network laying, different farmers' living customs, and different requirements for domestic sewage disposal. In the implementation process, we must adhere to the classification policy, one household one policy.

 The construction of rural domestic sewage facilities is a project for people's livelihood, and we should focus on the demands of the people and satisfy their satisfaction.

"Before the implementation of the project, we investigated and surveyed on the advanced village, built files for each household, communicated with the villagers about the direction of the pipeline, and communicated with the village after the plan was formulated. After reaching an agreement, the construction drawing was designed, and confirmed with each household again after completion, to ensure that the plan is uncontroversial and operational."Zhou Songlin said.

 Zhou Songlin introduced to the reporter: " the sewage of the farmers in the pipe should be connected and sent to the sewage treatment plant for treatment through the sewage pipe network; the farmers in the sewage treatment plant or the farmers with high economic cost shall gather to the unified sewage treatment station and collect the domestic sewage through the pipe network of the surrounding farmers for centralized treatment; the remote scattered households shall build decentralized sewage treatment facilities to purify the domestic sewage and realize the classified, intensive and accurate treatment of all rural sewage.”

It is far away from the sewage treatment plant, and the surrounding farmers are more scattered, so we choose the centralized collection of domestic sewage for local treatment, and establish a unified sewage treatment station.

 At the station, Zhou Songlin pointed to a circular flower bed and said, " Look, here is a composite filter, there are a variety of media composite packing, hydrophilic aquatic plants on the ground, through the plant roots and packing adsorption, the water quality reached a higher standard.”

"The water we irrigate the land is reclaimed water. The sewage is treated on the spot and can be irrigated directly after reaching the standard."Said a villager who was picking vegetables.

 Zhou Songlin introduced, purified water in addition to irrigation, the excess will be discharged into the farmland beside the canal, through the ecological ditch into the small river dam, into the white rice dang.

 The owner of the white rice swing small courtyard Fan Fei lives in the white rice swing bank since childhood."There used to be a farm in the village where chicken and duck feces smelled very high. Surrounding villagers laundry bath water cooking water directly dumped, sewage cross flow. Now, the village replanning, vacated the farm, the sewage treatment site was expanded in different places. White rice water clean, the environment is good, I also built this small courtyard here."She was delighted to introduce the change of her hometown to reporters.

Up to now, Xishan District has completed the rural domestic sewage treatment facilities in 300 villages, and another 250 are expected to be completed this year.

 With wisdom to governance, the comprehensive implementation of fine management

 As the saying goes, "three points to build, seven in charge". The rural sewage treatment project is complex and involves a large number of people. If there is a lack of construction and transportation control means, the project is easy to be suspended after the completion, and become a "sunshine" project.

 Wearing "intelligent brain" to realize precise construction and fine management is the magic weapon of "Xishan mode". In the construction stage, the traditional mode of extensive agricultural pollution management is inefficient, and GIS management system is introduced.

"In the design stage, locate the pipeline terminals, pipelines and stations, and dismantle the design drawings into component codes carrying engineering information. In the construction stage of the project, the construction construction and visa changes of related pipelines and stations are scanned and accepted, forming a traceable, transparent and standardized construction management, and realizing the consistency of engineering design and construction."Zhou Songlin said.

"With the GIS management system, we have equipped each site with a professional operation team to do a good job in the operation and maintenance management of agricultural pollution facilities. The fine construction GIS management system and intelligent water management system will be interconnected to realize the communication of design, construction and operation data."Zhou Songlin told reporters," the operation personnel can understand the operation status of each site through the mobile terminals. A scan of the QR code, the project design drawings, materials used, service life and other information will all be displayed.”

 In terms of fine management, an integrated management platform is built, drawing the "one network" of the layout of regional agricultural pollution treatment pipelines, the "one map" of the operation status of agricultural pollution treatment facilities in the whole region, and the "one table" of the effectiveness of agricultural pollution control in the whole region.

"It can be said that the platform has realized the automatic monitoring and intelligent control of the whole life cycle related facilities and equipment for rural sewage from generation, pretreatment, remote transportation, pumping station lifting, inspection well monitoring, pipe network monitoring, sewage treatment, tail water discharge monitoring, sewage outlet monitoring and river section monitoring."Zhou Songlin said.

"In case of equipment failure, abnormal data and other situations, the platform will start the alarm mechanism, and the operation and maintenance personnel will immediately go to the site for inspection after receiving the order, and carry out calibration, maintenance, consumables replacement and other work. This saves the cost of manpower, shortens the troubleshooting time, in order to ensure the normal operation of sewage treatment facilities."Zhou Songlin added.

 On the integrated management platform of intelligent agricultural and pollution station management, all the data are open and transparent, documented, and traced to the source to form a closed loop, which also facilitates the regular supervision of the government and ecological and environmental departments.

"When the platform is connected to the monitoring system of the district government and the ecological environment department, the operation data, appearance, on-site real-time images, water quantity and electricity data of all specific stations in the district are all publicly available, convenient for daily supervision."Zhou Songlin introduced to reporters.

"In the next two years, the 'Xishan Model' will cover all 755 villages in Xishan District. Of course, this is only the starting point. We hope that this model can continue to be extended to a wider range, to help improve the rural living environment and change the ecological environment, and set a model for the construction of national ecological civilization."Zhou Songlin said.

Now, the sewage is treated, the environment has improved, and the water is clear. Relying on the good ecological environment, more and more tourists are attracted by the fame. Fan Fei's small courtyard has become a web celebrity card place. A beautiful picture of a beautiful countryside and rich farmers is being drawn.

Special Statement：

1.This article is reposted from Polaris Environmental Protection Network；

2.If you think this information infringes on your legitimate rights, please send evidence/ relevant qualification and requirements to info@v-cheersfilters.com, V-cheers webmaster will reply you as soon as possible.