MEP printed and distributed the Inventory of the National Project Pool for the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution (2017). The master implementation plans of 228 prefectural cities for the water pollution control are supported by the national project pool, including more than 3,300 projects with a total investment around 300 bn. yuan.

MEP and MOF started to develop the project pools to fight water pollution in 2016, and in order to improve the quality of the projects in the national pool and accelerate the project progress, MEP proposed the category-specific management of the projects based on the maturity of the projects in the national pool and the division of administrative powers, and organized the renewal of the national pool since the start of this year. The Ministry had the first 118 master plans already supported by the pool adjusted and offered technical guidance to 174 applicant prefectural cities this year. At last, the implementation plans of 228 cities made it to the national pool, with projects ranging from the ecological conservation of lakes with fairly good water quality, the protection of the centralized drinking water sources in urban areas, the prevention and control of water pollution in key watersheds, to the groundwater pollution control.

PPP model is recommended for the projects in the national pool, so the new wastewater and garbage treatment projects specified by the implementation plans in the 2016 inventory and the 2017 applicant plans were removed from the pool for not adopting the PPP model.

In the next step, the local governments will organize the prefectural cities to further improve the implementation plans and promote the project progress.

It is learned that the central government is going to spend 12 bn. yuan special funds soon to support the water environment protection and governance projects in the national project pool and facilitate the implementation of the action plan against water pollution.