10.2 Management and Administration Arrangement

Categories: 10 System Adminstration, Operation, Maintenance and Monitoring
Time of issue: 2022-04-28 10:44:07
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In China, the assets of rural wastewater treatment systems belong to the villages. The village committee, on behalf of the villagers, is responsible for the administration and management of the rural wastewater treatment systems. As the economic conditions vary in different areas in China, the management and administration arrangement for rural wastewater treatment systems is different in poor villages and rich villages.

In poor villages, as they do not have the economic capacity to sustain the O&M of wastewater treatment systems, they would seek for financial support from township government, and township government may ask county government for help, if they have limited capacity to support the villages. Under this circumstance, the county government will provide 0%-100% financial support for the continuous O&M of wastewater treatment systems in villages as needed. Normally, county government is the key financial source.

In rich villages, they have sufficient financial budget for the O&M of wastewater treatment systems and take the responsibility of overall O&M by themselves.

The institutional framework for any O&M program will involve different sectors of society, including village committees, township/county governments, and private enterprises.

The village committee designates one or two villagers for daily check of the wastewater treatment facilities to confirm the normal operation. Given the remote setting of the wastewater treatment facilities, the designated villagers play an important role in supporting private operator. The time required for this work depends on the complexity of the wastewater treatment systems.
A qualified third-party, that is the private operator, will be recruited by the village committee or the county government at a fixed-rate to take the responsibility of O&M, including providing trainings to the designated villagers on daily check and conducting complex operation and maintenance activities that are beyond the skill level of the villagers. The private operator may carry out detailed financial management activities for the facilities. Normally, the contract duration is 2 to 3 years.
The village committee will coordinate the communication between the designated villagers and the private operator, supervise the performance of the private operator, and plan for future wastewater management.
The villagers shall be responsible for the maintenance of the septic tanks in their backyards.
The county ecology and environment bureau (EEB) is responsible for the regulatory oversight and inspection of the facilities. If pollutant concentrations in the effluent from the facilities exceed applicable standards, the private operator shall take the responsibility to address the issue.

It is critical that the governmental agencies recognize their roles and responsibilities for the operation and maintenance of rural wastewater treatment systems. Insufficient and ineffective supervision from the governmental agencies and over-dependent on the villagers’ consciousness may lead to the program failure. It would be a good incentive measure to include the performance of rural wastewater programs into the annual performance evaluation indicators of the leaders in corresponding governmental agencies.