en.Wedoany.com Reported - China's "15th Five-Year Plan for Accelerating Agricultural and Rural Modernization" has, for the first time, set a quantitative target for rural domestic sewage treatment, aiming for a treatment rate of 70% by 2030. This target represents a 15-percentage-point increase from the 55% treatment rate in 2025. Zhang Bin from the Rural Economy Research Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs stated that this means the water environment in most villages will be effectively managed by 2030.
The plan notes that the rural domestic sewage treatment rate in 2025 has already doubled compared to 2020. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, over 39,000 rural domestic sewage treatment facilities were constructed, and resource utilization facilities covered more than 51 million households. Zhang Yibo, a researcher at the Macroeconomic Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, pointed out that the 70% target was set because the treatment rate has only just exceeded half, leaving significant room for improvement, and it aims to address shortcomings necessary for achieving basic modern living conditions in rural areas by 2035.
The plan requires that after treatment, "three basics" be achieved: basically no visible sewage runoff, basically no detectable odor, and basically no complaints from villagers. Experts analyze that with over 400,000 administrative villages and more than 2 million natural villages nationwide, models such as resource utilization, integration into urban sewage pipe networks (plants), or centralized treatment should be adopted based on local conditions, avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach. In addition to sewage treatment, the plan also outlines projects to address shortcomings in rural modern living conditions.
Specific measures include launching a new round of rural road improvement initiatives to address issues such as low technical grades, inadequate road network quality, and insufficient management and maintenance; promoting integrated urban-rural water supply and large-scale centralized water supply projects on a classified basis; expanding the coverage of rural charging facilities; increasing the service coverage rate of township (subdistrict) regional elderly care service centers from 60% in 2024 to 80% in 2030; steadily raising the proportion of medical insurance funds used at county, township, and village medical institutions; and scientifically and orderly advancing the urbanization of agricultural transfer populations, implementing a system where basic public services are provided based on household registration at the place of habitual residence.
