Harbin City in northeast China is seeking overseas investment and advanced technology worth up to 6 billion yuan (US$725 million) for its nine waste water treatment projects.

Dong Kuiyou, planning director of the government-supported Harbin Municipal Drainage Company, said Harbin municipal government planned to launch the nine projects, which have a combined handling capacity of 60 percent of the waste water discharged by the city.

Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, produces 940,000 tons of waste water per day.

Two of the planned projects will be completed in two years, and the remainder will be set up before 2005.

The Harbin municipal government has published its plan for the waste water treatment projects on the Internet.

China has set a target of raising its urban waste water treatment capacity from 14.75 million cubic meters per day in 2000 to 40 million cubic meters by 2005, about 45 percent of the total waste water discharged in urban areas.

(People's Daily June 7, 2002)