{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.02476930548810102, 'fraction_numerical': 0.026711996114618747, 'mean_word_length': 5.3580246913580245, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Rethinking China’s water policy: the worst water quality despite the most stringent standards

The new environmental protection law, effected in January 2015, is perceived as the most progressive and stringent law in the history of environmental protection in China (Zhang & Cao, 2015). Subsequently, in April 2015, China released a clean water action plan in response to the severe water pollution that has increasingly plagued the country. The main aim of this policy is to ensure sustainable water supplies. Nutrient flux into surface waters, causing eutrophication and subsequent algal blooms, is the main cause of poor water quality in most watersheds. One of the most important measures is thus stricter rules on discharges from sewage treatment plants. Investments required to implement this action will surpass that of the clean air action plan issued in September 2013. A national standard for sewage treatment plant effluent (GB18918-2002) has been introduced, and local authorities are encouraged to set stricter local standards. Beijing is an exemplar and has already issued and implemented its local discharge standard (DB11/890–2012), replacing the national standard, in July 2012. The concentrations of pollutants in effluent from sewage treatment plants now satisfy the water quality of Classes III or IV of China’s surface water environmental quality standard (GB38382002). This renders the effluent suitable as a raw water source for drinking water or for swimming, respectively. Tianjin, another megacity, implemented its own standard to reduce point source pollution discharge in October 2015. These standards are the strictest in China, and probably the world (Table 1). Several Chinese academics and officials believe that stricter limits on water discharge from sewage treatment plants will be effective in ameliorating the quality of China’s surface waters (Ma & Zhou, 2013). But why does the quality of China’s surface water resources continue to deteriorate despite the already very strict discharge standards for treated wastewater?