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China-Sweden
Erdos Eco-town Project, Dong Sheng, Inner Mongolia, China
Summary
To show that it is possible to build and operate an urban centre using
sustainable approaches to sanitation, water use, solid waste and
infrastructure, a bold new research and development project has been
undertaken by the City of Dong Sheng in Erdos Municipal District in
collaboration with the EcoSanRes Programme and Sida. A town with one-, two
and four-story buildings including service and shopping facilities for 7000
people is currently being built. The first houses are presently being built
for inhabitation by the end of 2004 and the project will be completed by
2007. This represents the first major attempt in China (and the world) to
build from the ground up an entire functioning modern town using sustainable
water and sanitation practices.
Introduction
The
location is Northern China in Inner Mongolia 100 kms south of Baotou in the
Yellow River Basin. The area receives an annual precipitation of 300-400 mm
with an evapotranspiration potential of ca 2800 mm and water rationing is
commonplace in most urban centres. Erdos represents a cluster of cities in a
coal mining belt (73 billion tons coal reserve) containing about 1.5 million
people. Dong Sheng itself has a population of 260,000 and the new town
(Hei Zao Kui) is being developed as a suburb a few kilometres from the
city centre.
In the downtown
city area of Dong Sheng, there are about 60,000 households, among which
15,000 households live in multi-story and 45,000 in single-story buildings.
About 20,000 households have flush toilets while the rest of the population
use 280 public toilets, among which 17 are flushing, 156 deep pit latrines,
and the balance shallow pit latrines. In the periurban and rural areas most
households have their own shallow pit latrines but these are in bad
condition. Open defecation is common. The pit latrines vary in quality but
in general are very poor risking both health and the environment. In general
the entire situation regarding sanitation in the city is typical for China,
a patchwork, under-maintained activity resulting in groundwater pathogen
contamination and nutrient pollution. The poor sanitation conditions tax
further the already impoverished water supply situation.
Prior to 1985,
sewage from the flush toilets was mixed with rainwater in ditches and
directly discharged without treatment. The city began to construct its
sewage system with collector pipes in 1985. This system covered 64% of the
city area in 2002, and rainwater was collected in a separate system of 31
kms of pipeline and covered/lined ditches in 2000. The sewage treatment
plant started to operate in 2002 with a daily capacity of 30,000 tons but is
running at a much lower level due to lack of a proper collector system. An
additional sewage treatment plant has a capacity of 2,000 t/day. It is
planned to build 2 additional smaller wastewater treatment plants each with
capacities of 2,000 t/day. The groundwater beneath the city is polluted with
sewage. There is an obvious need for a wiser use of water and transformation
over to a sustainable sanitation system that is using little or no water as
a real option for this city.
Project Plan
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1600
households in 1-, 2- and 4-story buildings to be completed by 2007
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dry
urine-diverting toilets
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urine
collection and recycling
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dry fecal
collection, sanitisation and recycling
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greywater
collector, treatment and reuse
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kitchen
organics collection, composting and recycling
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source-separation of solid waste and recycling
The Hei Zao Kui
Ecosan Project
The houses in the new ecosan town are being equipped with modern, affordable
porcelain urine-diverting dry toilets using standards developed and applied
in Sweden. Toilets and related equipment and fixtures are being developed
and manufactured in China specifically for this project. Urine (ca 500 L per
person per yr) will be collected on site in decentralised tanks and used in
local agriculture. Water supply will be restricted to kitchen and bath use
only (ca 80 L per person per day). The greywater (30,000 L per person per
year) will be collected and treated on site in decentralised small treatment
oxygenation and filtration facilities to reduce pathogens, BOD, N and P
prior to surface soil discharge (there is no surface water in this area and
the safety zone to the groundwater is 20-30 meters). Grease traps requiring
maintenance will be supplied in order to improve hydraulic flow of the
greywater but also to reinforce at the household level the immediate effects
of waste discharge to water. Organic and solid wastes will be sorted and
collected in ecosations. Fecal material (50 L per person per year) will be
retained in dry form in cellar containers, which are to be emptied once or
twice a year and composted along with household organic wastes and used in
soil improvement. Storm and runoff water will not be mixed with any
household products and will drain following the natural contours of the
landscape.
The tenants
purchasing houses and apartments in this town will receive training and
follow-up information in order to build up their level of awareness and
interest in this project. Many studies will be carried out it in connection
with this project both during and after construction. Performance and cost
profiles will be evaluated in order to be able to make comparisons with
conventional practices.
The project
staff has been organised into a series of R & D teams specialising in
various project components e.g. infrastructure planning and installation
(roads, water supply, power, IT, heating), housing architecture and
building, ecotoilet installations, urine and greywater systems, agro-reuse,
communications, etc. The project will undergo a period of development and
testing prior to full-scale implementation in 2005 and 2006. Once in
operation the model town will be the object of further performance studies
by water and sanitation specialists, urban planners, urban agriculturalists,
etc.
Contacts
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Arno Rosemarin, Xiao Jun, Uno Winblad, Guoyi Han, Zhu Qiang, Stockholm
Environment Institute
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Peter Ridderstolpe and Ebba af Petersens, Swedenviro
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Sun Lixia Chief, Li Jingrong Vice-chief Dong Sheng District
EPB
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Zhang Dong Sheng, Chief Erdos Planning Bureau
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Mr Han Yunxiang, Vice Chief of Dongsheng District Government
Download the Dongsheng update (PDF
173 kB)
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Earlier SanRes Work in Viet Nam and Guangxi
Autonomous Region, China
Vietnam
The
Vina-SanRes project was started in 1996 in the Cam Duc commune in central
Vietnam. In all, 62 urine-diverting toilets of six variations were
installed in the community. As one of the first pilot projects implemented
by the SanRes Programme, the purpose of the Cam Duc project was to develop
and test variable types of dry sanitation systems suitable for urban
conditions, and to establish the minimum faecal retention period required
for pathogen destruction.
Guangxi Autonomous Region,
China
When the SanRes
Programme was appraised in 2001 more than 12,000 ecosan toilets were
operating in Guangxi Province. That number was over 100,000 by the end of
2002.
Dalu Village
Beginning in
1997, the SanRes Programme initiated an ecological sanitation pilot
project in Dalu Village, Tianyuang County in southern China. The village
contains approximately 130 households lodging 500 people. Before the
installation of 63 ecosan toilets, the sanitation in the village was
non-existent: a few pit toilets. The pilot project included building a
public latrine with a solar heating processing chamber and successfully
stimulated much interest in ecological sanitation throughout Guangxi
Province.
Yongning County
In recent years,
Yongning County has undertaken what is referred to as the "ecology and
sanitation revolution". In 2001, 50 ecosan villages were completed and
operational reaching more than 20,000 inhabitants. The county has
accommodated more than 10,000 visitors seeking to learn about ecological
sanitation and serves as a model for future development.
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