At present, the urban sewage treatment market in China has become saturated, and rural areas, which account for 60% of the total water consumption, have become a promising new blue ocean in the market. Sander Group Chairman Wen Yibo pointed out that the rural sewage treatment industry could generate a production value of over 40 billion yuan in 2016, increase to 84 billion yuan in 2020, and reach 130 billion yuan in 2025. However, under the huge market demand, rural sewage treatment is not as beautiful as imagined. Last year, there were media reports that rural sewage treatment facilities in Beijing were generally idle, and rural sewage treatment still faces many difficulties.

Lack of legal constraints and insufficient motivation

Wang Kaijun, Vice Dean and Professor of the School of Environment at Tsinghua University, mentioned in his analysis of urban and rural sewage treatment that in the 1990s, there were no clear legal provisions, and the development of urban sewage treatment was still slow. However, during the period of the 11th and 15th Five Year Plans, COD and SO2 were included as binding indicators. Wang Kaijun believes that this is the main reason for the rapid development of urban sewage treatment. In contrast, targeted legal provisions for rural sewage treatment are almost blank, without legal constraints, and the motivation for rural sewage treatment is clearly insufficient.

No lack of technology, no lack of standards

Rural sewage treatment started relatively late. In the early stages of rural sewage treatment, the lack of matching process technology led to high operating costs and low profit margins. However, Wen Yibo pointed out that these are all past problems. Now, with a large number of enterprises entering the rural sewage treatment market, technical problems have been gradually solved and are no longer a major obstacle.

The real obstacle is actually the excessive technical routes, lack of unified standards, and difficulty in implementation. Wang Kaijun pointed out at the Tsinghua University Engineering PhD Summit Forum and the Tsinghua University School of Environment - Sander Group International Symposium on Rural Sewage Treatment that there is no dedicated technical standard system for rural pollutant discharge, nor is there a clear rural domestic pollution. Researchers from the University of Birmingham announced on the 17th that they have developed a new type of optical equipment that can quickly detect whether the water quality meets the safe drinking standard within 30 seconds based on the fluorescence characteristics of water. It is expected to be used in disaster relief, sewage treatment, and other areas.

According to researchers, all water bodies emit fluorescence, but the human eye is not sensitive enough to specific wavelengths of light, so these fluorescence are not easily detected by the naked eye. Previous studies have shown that due to the different fluorescence characteristics of pollutants in water, water pollution can be identified by analyzing water fluorescence.

The device developed by the University of Birmingham team can detect specific wavelengths of fluorescence to determine the presence of corresponding microorganisms and organic carbon in water. Researchers say that using this device to scan water bodies can complete the detection in just 30 seconds.

Compared to traditional methods, it takes more than 12 hours to complete water quality testing and requires the use of relatively expensive biochemical reagents, which cannot meet the needs of disaster stricken and impoverished areas to quickly find clean water sources.

Professor John from the University of Birmingham who led this project ˙ Bridgman said that the operation of this new device is very simple, and ordinary people can quickly learn to use it, which is beneficial for future popularization in remote areas.

It is reported that the research team has collaborated with a Chinese company to use this new equipment to assist a sewage treatment plant in Guangzhou in improving sewage treatment efficiency.