The People’s Republic of China (PRC) achieved unprecedented economic growth between 1986 and 2005. One of the unintended consequences was severe environmental degradation, especially the pollution of water bodies. The government’s plans to contain water pollution had not kept pace with the rate of agricultural, industrial, and urban growth. Furthermore, the trend in ecological degradation persisted. To address the poor environmental performance, the government prioritized (i) the protection and rehabilitation of valued ecosystems, (ii) better pollution control, (iii) the improvement of natural resource management, and (iv) sustainable utilization of marine and water resources, under its 11th Five-Year Plan (2006–2010).
The Integrated Ecosystem and Water Resources Management in the Baiyangdian Basin Project was conceived as a demonstration project for carrying out the Baiyangdian Ecosystem Rehabilitation Master Plan (2005–2015) that, in accordance with priorities of the national Five-Year Plan, called for an integrated effort to reduce the pollution loads into Baiyangdian Lake and rehabilitate the basin’s ecosystem. Baiyangdian Lake in Baoding municipality, Hebei province is the largest remaining semi-closed freshwater body in northern PRC. It has a surface area of 366 square kilometers (km2), consisting of a series of natural low-lying depressions and reed marshes. The lake and its upper watershed in the Taihang mountains support significant biodiversity of regional and global significance. The project was approved by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for a $100 million loan in June 2008. A grant of $2.975 million was also provided by Global Environment Facility (GEF) to finance a portion of biodiversity conservation costs.
At appraisal, the project’s intended impacts were improved quality of life, a sustainable ecosystem, and biodiversity conservation in Baiyangdian Basin. Its expected outcome was integrated ecosystem and water resources management, and improved environmental conditions in Baiyangdian basin. It comprised of four components: (i) 22 subproject investments in 7 categories—13 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs); 3 water supply systems (WSSs); 2 for reforestation; and one each for integrated water management, urban flood management, solid waste management, and clean energy development; (ii) biodiversity conservation; (iii) institutional strengthening; and (iv) project management support. A minor change of project scope was made during implementation: 9 subprojects were removed because of pressing domestic schedule and changes in local conditions, and 4 new ones were added, including a sludge treatment subproject to address the emerging issue of secondary pollution from the sludge of urban WWTPs and demonstrate sound sludge treatment. The intended outputs were generally successfully delivered, enabling the project to achieve its expected outcome.
The project greatly reduced the point source pollution in the catchment of the Baiyangdian basin. The 12 WWTPs it financed accounted for 24% of the total WWTP treatment capacity in Baoding municipality by 2018. While the project WWTPs can reduce point source pollution loading of chemical oxygen demand by 36,400 tons/year, actual average reduction effect was 62% of the target by 2016. The centralized sludge treatment subproject eliminates soil and water contamination risk through hazard-free treatment of 250 tons/day of the sludge generated by 3 urban WWTPs, and sustains the effective operation of 320,000 cubic meters per day (m3/day) wastewater treatment facilities.
Meanwhile 5,900 m3 of biogas and 75 tons of residual soil as land conditioner or landfill cover are being generated as side products, demonstrating a good practice in the PRC’s circular economy approach. Hygiene for 1.24 million people in 9 counties improved because they had access to wastewater services. In addition, 224,000 people in 2 counties were supplied with safe tap water, even as water availability in the project area was assured and rose. Water transfer from two reservoirs to the lake, operationalized through an integrated water resource management subproject, recharge the ecological waters, while excess floodwater is used to recharge the aquifer to restore groundwater resources. As a result, the average water level of Baiyangdian increased from 6.5 meters in 2005 and remained at a sustainable level of around 8 meters during 2015–2017.
The Baoding municipal government, acting through the Baoding Development and Reform Commission (BDRC), was the project executing agency. The BDRC set up the Baoding Project Management Office to oversee the day-to-day project operations carried out by the project implementation units in 14 counties of the Baoding municipality.
