​People＇s Daily Online | Original Technology Breakthrough: China Water Environment Group takes the lead in sinking key technologies to win the first prize for Guizhou Provincial Science and Technology Awards

Recently, the People's Government of Guizhou Province officially announced the list of recipients for the 2023 Guizhou Provincial Science and Technology Awards. The "Key Technologies and Applications for UndergroundUrban Reclaimed Water Plants and Water Ecological Reuse" project, led by China Water Environment Group and jointly applied by Beijing University of Technology, Institute of Geology and Technology of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guizhou University, Tsinghua University, Beijing Institute of Technology, and Xiyuan Environmental Protection, has successfully won the first prize of the 2023 Science and Technology Progress Award. This is the only environmental project in the list of winners of the Science and Technology Progress Award that has won the first prize, and it is also the first time that the group has led the way to win the provincial and ministerial level science and technology first prize.

The Guizhou Provincial Science and Technology Award is a scientific and technological award awarded by the People's Government of Guizhou Province, which recognizes technological achievements that have made significant innovations in key technologies or system integration, are technically difficult, and have reached the leading domestic level in overall technical level and major technical and economic indicators. In the year 2023, a total of 244 awards for scientific and technological progress in Guizhou Province were accepted, the highest in history. Since the establishment of the Guizhou Provincial Award in 2001, the first prize for environmental scientific and technological progress has been won by enterprises for the first time. The group's leadership in winning the provincial science and technology first prize represents high recognitionform the industryof the technology system of the undergroundfactory.

The project application team was the first in China to carry out technology research and engineering practice for undergroundurban reclaimed water plants. In response to the multi-level needs of land intensification, environmental safety, pollution reduction and carbon reduction, and ecological reuse, the core technology system of undergroundplants was constructed from a single plant scale, and the transformation of sewage regeneration and river treatment from segmentation to coupling linkage was promoted at the urban scale. The key technologies of the project have been selected in a total of 10 national level technology lists, including advanced pollution prevention and control, green technology promotion, and advanced green low-carbon technologies. The overall technical appraisal has reached the level of international leading.

This technological achievement focuses on the key links of urban sewage treatment and water resource reuse. Through in-depth research and technological innovation, it has successfully overcome a series of technical difficulties and provided strong support for the sustainable development of cities. The successful application of the first city scale distributed undergroundreclaimedwater system has been completed in Guiyang. 17 sinking plants have been built along the Nanming River, supplying 500 million cubic meters of recycled water annually. The water quality of the national control section is better than Class IV or above, and it hasbeenClass III for 11 months in 2022. The coverage of aquatic vegetation has reached 80%, and a healthy river ecological system has gradually been established. This has set a benchmark demonstration project for the transformation from single target management of water resources, water environment, and water ecology to the integration of three water resources.

In October 2023, Nanming River was selected as an excellent case of National Beautiful Rivers and Lakes

At present, the project achievements have been promoted and applied to 15 major national demonstration projects across the country, covering the construction and expansion of sewage plants, river and lake treatment, and other application scenarios in 22 provinces. About 1 billion cubic meters of recycled water are reused annually, adding 120 hectares of green parks to the city and providing services to more than 40 million people.

The project achievements have promoted the introduction of national policies, and the technology system that the group has adhered to for many years has become an important development strategy for national urban construction, leading the industry to a new growth pole in the future.