[Mainland China] Eight departments jointly issued the Notice on Further Strengthening the Prevention of Wastewater Pollution Risks from Industry and Other Sources to Safeguard the Safety of Agricultural Irrigation Water: Strictly control the access of pro

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment, together with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Supreme People's Court, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate — eight departments in total — issued the Notice on Further Strengthening the Prevention of Pollution Risks from Industrial and Other Wastewater to Safeguard the Safety of Agricultural Irrigation Water. As a supporting institutional document of the Action Plan for Water Body Protection and Governance Around the People, it sets out arrangements in four areas: optimizing spatial layout, strengthening wastewater discharge control, reinforcing water quality safeguards for agricultural irrigation water, and strengthening environmental law enforcement, and advances the upgrading and renovation of centralized wastewater treatment facilities in industrial parks around farmland.

Recently, a document jointly signed by eight departments has drawn attention in the water and environmental protection industry. This document, titled the Notice on Further Strengthening the Prevention of Pollution Risks from Industrial and Other Wastewater to Safeguard the Safety of Agricultural Irrigation Water (hereinafter referred to as the Notice), was led by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and jointly issued with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Supreme People's Court, and the Supreme People's Procuratorate. It is a supporting institutional document of the Action Plan for Water Body Protection and Governance Around the People.

The joint action of eight departments, with the "two supreme organs" among them, is itself a strong signal: pollution of agricultural irrigation water by industrial wastewater is no longer a regulatory matter for the environmental protection department alone, but a whole-chain governance issue spanning territorial spatial planning, project access, discharge control, water quality monitoring, and judicial accountability.

Why Now: Three Long-Unresolved Shortcomings

The Notice directly identifies the problems at the outset — currently, industrial enterprises and parks, as well as livestock and poultry farms, suffer from prominent issues such as inadequate spatial layout, incomplete wastewater discharge control requirements, and an insufficiently robust water quality safeguard mechanism for agricultural irrigation water.

These three statements correspond to three types of real-world scenarios:

• Layout-related risks — some industrial parks and farms were historically built along rivers and adjacent to farmland; once discharge gets out of control, pollutants enter irrigation canal systems directly;
• Control gaps — characteristic pollutants in industrial wastewater (heavy metals, total salt content, toxic and hazardous organic compounds) may not be fully covered by current discharge standards, creating blind spots where "discharge meets standards yet risks remain";
• Institutional voids — who monitors the water quality of farmland irrigation water, at what frequency, and how anomalies are reported and handled have long lacked unified technical specifications and inter-departmental coordination mechanisms.

Several public opinion incidents in recent years involving "farmland pollution caused by wastewater irrigation" are essentially the result of these three types of problems overlapping. The introduction of the Notice is precisely about linking responsibilities scattered across various departments into an accountable chain of responsibility.

Specific Arrangements in Four Areas

The Notice specifies relevant measures in four areas to promote the building of a cross-departmental, full-cycle risk prevention and control system.

### I. Optimizing Spatial Layout: Blocking Risks Before Site Selection

The Notice makes clear that in processes such as territorial spatial planning control, ecological environment zoning control, and environmental impact assessment of construction projects, access requirements will be further standardized for construction projects in areas with relatively high risks such as around farmland and karst landforms, as well as those discharging characteristic pollutants such as total salt content, heavy metals, and toxic and hazardous pollutants, strictly preventing environmental risks brought about by the relocation of chemical industrial parks.

It is worth noting that "karst landforms" are listed separately. In karst areas, where caves and fissures are developed, once pollutants enter the ground they spread rapidly and are difficult to intercept; access standards for industrial projects in such areas will be noticeably tightened. As for "strictly preventing environmental risks brought about by the relocation of chemical industrial parks," this points to the possible spillover of risks during the transfer of some chemical production capacity to the central and western regions and to areas with relatively weak regulatory capacity.

### II. Strengthening Wastewater Discharge Control: Park Wastewater Plants Must Be Upgraded

The Notice requires advancing the upgrading and renovation of centralized wastewater treatment facilities in industrial parks around farmland and carrying out investigation and remediation of water-related problems in industry and livestock and poultry farming; for industrial enterprises discharging characteristic pollutants that may affect the safety of downstream agricultural irrigation water, it is necessary to carry out the formulation and revision of local water pollutant discharge standards and strengthen discharge control requirements.

The implications of this requirement for the existing market are very clear:

• Upgrading and renovation of centralized treatment facilities — wastewater plants in parks around farmland will be prioritized for inclusion in the renovation list, with emphasis on filling the gap in the removal capacity for characteristic pollutants;
• Investigation and remediation — water-related problems of industrial enterprises and livestock and poultry farms will enter normalized investigation, with hidden pipes, seepage pits, and mixed rainwater-sewage connections becoming key targets;
• Formulation and revision of local standards — characteristic pollutants not covered by current standards will be addressed through local discharge standards, which means enterprises' compliance costs and technical requirements will rise along with the upgrading of local standards.

### III. Strengthening Water Quality Safeguards for Irrigation Water: Issuing Technical Guidelines for Monitoring

At the institutional level, the Notice proposes to further consolidate enterprises' primary responsibility for self-monitoring, issue technical guidelines for water quality monitoring of farmland irrigation water, guide local authorities to develop agricultural irrigation water quality monitoring plans tailored to local conditions, strengthen collaboration on agricultural irrigation water quality monitoring, and specify requirements for information notification, data sharing, and emergency response.

From "whether to monitor" to "how to monitor, who reports, and how to respond," the issuance of the technical guidelines will fill an institutional gap. For enterprises, the primary responsibility for self-monitoring has been consolidated once again, and monitoring data will become key evidence in law enforcement and judicial proceedings.

### IV. Strengthening Law Enforcement, Publicity, and Training: Discharge into Karst Caves and Seepage Pits Becomes a Priority

The Notice requires intensifying on-site law enforcement, with a focus on rectifying illegal discharge of industrial wastewater, livestock and poultry manure and other acts using karst caves, seepage pits, fissures, and similar pathways; strengthening coordination between law enforcement and the judiciary and information sharing, improving the linkage between administrative law enforcement and criminal justice, and resolutely combating environmental pollution crimes; and at the same time strengthening policy interpretation, publicity, and training to enhance enterprises' awareness of law compliance and grassroots capacity to perform duties.

The significance of the participation of the "Two Highs" (the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate) in issuing the document lies precisely here—the linkage mechanism between administrative law enforcement and criminal justice has been formally written in, and the referral standards and evidence rules for environmental pollution crimes will become smoother.

What It Means for the Industry

The issuance and implementation of the Notice will shore up shortcomings in the control of wastewater pollution discharge from industry and other sources, and accelerate the resolution of prominent water environment problems around the people. From an industry perspective, changes in three directions deserve attention.

• Demand for upgrading existing industrial park wastewater treatment plants is accelerating—"farmland periphery" has become a new priority label, and the focus of retrofitting is shifting from conventional COD and ammonia nitrogen to heavy metals, total salt content, and toxic and hazardous characteristic pollutants, driving up demand for corresponding advanced treatment processes (Advanced Oxidation, membrane separation, adsorption, evaporative crystallization, etc.).
• Monitoring and data services have become essential—irrigation water quality monitoring plans, enterprise self-monitoring, and inter-departmental data sharing are inseparable from online monitoring equipment, data platforms, and third-party testing services. This is a typical case of "policy creating the market."
• The compliance logic is shifting from "single-point compliance" to "full-chain traceability"—enterprises must not only meet standards themselves but also prove that downstream irrigation water is safe. The forward shift of environmental risk control will change the design boundaries and responsibility allocation of many projects.

Against the broader backdrop, the Notice interlocks with a series of actions including the implementation of the Ecological Environment Code, the successive rollout of watershed-based discharge standards, and the implementation of the Technical Guidelines for Discharge Standards of Industrial Parks (HJ 945.4—2026), all pointing to one trend: the evaluation criteria for industrial wastewater treatment are upgrading from "compliance with conventional indicators" to "controllable comprehensive risk."

What It Means for Us: TIANYI TECH's Assessment

TIANYI TECH has long served municipal and industrial park wastewater treatment and Reclaimed Water Reuse clients. In light of the requirements of the Notice, we recommend that clients do three things in advance: first, assess whether existing discharge outlets and characteristic pollutant lists have gaps of "compliant but still risky" against the distribution of farmland around the park and the functions of receiving water bodies; second, reserve advanced treatment units for heavy metals, total salt content, and toxic and hazardous pollutants in upgrading and retrofitting plans to avoid secondary retrofitting after standards are upgraded; third, improve self-monitoring and data traceability systems, truly turning monitoring data into an asset that can self-demonstrate compliance and support emergency response. Once policy extends the chain of responsibility, enterprises that plan for compliance early will significantly reduce subsequent adjustment costs.

About TIANYI LIMITED: TIANYI LIMITED is deeply engaged in the fields of wastewater treatment and Reclaimed Water Reuse, and is committed to providing efficient, low-carbon, and sustainable water treatment solutions for municipal and industrial clients.