The Asian Development Bank is making a $US100m loan to finance an environmental improvement project in Wuhan, Hubei province, which bank officials say could act as a template for the whole of China. The project will involve the treatment and disposal of the city’s sewage sludge, and the rehabilitation of polluted lakes and water channels.

Wuhan already has a comprehensive wastewater treatment system in place, but the waste sewage sludge generated by the treatment plants – estimated by the ADB to total 657 tons a day – poses growing environmental and health hazards.

Under the scheme, sludge will be dried and treated using biogas from a wastewater facility and steam from a thermal power plant. The treated sludge will then be used as a soil conditioner and filler for building construction materials.

In addition, the project will help rehabilitate Wuhan’s waterways by restoring the natural hydraulic circulation between lakes and channels. It will also “increase water regeneration and flood retention capacities that will help mitigate climate change impacts, while allowing urban expansion in flood-safe and environmentally clean areas,” said Arnaud Heckmann, Urban Development Specialist in ADB’s East Asia Department.