[Mainland China] County-Level Wastewater Treatment Sees September Order Wave: Bishan's RMB 106 Million Expansion of 11 Plants, Luozhuang's RMB 47.54 Million Upgrade, and Huangmei's RMB 147 Million Plant-Network Integration

2026 年 9 月 saw an unusually dense concentration of activity in China's county-level wastewater treatment market: 9 月 10 日 Chongqing Bishan released a tender plan for the capacity expansion and upgrading of 11 wastewater treatment plants, with an estimated contract value of RMB 1.06 亿; 9 月 13 日 Hubei Huangmei launched qualification review for the Chengxi plant-network integration project, with an estimated contract value of RMB 1.47 亿; 9 月 14 日 Shandong Luozhuang District First Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrading and renovation was awarded at RMB 4754 万, and on the same day, the second bid evaluation announcement for the Hubei Wuxue Chengdong plant-network integration EPC was published, with bids of approximately RMB 1.40 亿–1.43 亿. All five projects are at the county and township/street level, and all are uniformly packaged as "capacity expansion + upgrading + pipe network + smart systems" combinations.

Five Samples: Where the Money Goes

• Chongqing Bishan — 11 township-level plants packaged as a whole: Covering 11 wastewater treatment plants across 7 townships/streets including Zhengxing, Hebian, Daxing, Jianlong, Qitang, Batang, and Dalu, with total treatment capacity increased from 6000 m³/d to 13200 m³/d; the effluent standards of Baojia and Wulong are upgraded from Grade 1B to Grade 1A. The owner is Chongqing Bihao Urban Operation Management Co., Ltd., with an estimated contract value of RMB 10621.79 万, and the tender documents are scheduled for release in 2026 年 10 月.
• Shandong Linyi Luozhuang — full equipment renewal at an old plant: The upgrading and renovation of the First Wastewater Treatment Plant was awarded to a consortium led by China Railway 23rd Bureau Group First Engineering Co., Ltd. at RMB 4753.99 万, with a construction scale of 5 万 m³/d, involving the renewal of 259 units/sets of equipment, renovation of fine screens, secondary clarifiers, biochemical tanks, activated sand filters, fiber rotary disc filters, etc., along with simultaneous upgrading of Smart Water systems (precise chemical dosing, precise aeration systems).
• Hubei Huangmei — 17 km² plant-network integration: The Chengxi area covers the Weiliang River area (5.7 km²) and the Xinkai River area (11.3 km²), with new DN400 sewage pipes of 7901 m, DN300 pipes of 995 m, Weiliang River interception trunk main of 5936 m, Xinkai River interception trunk main of 3169 m, and rehabilitation of DN400 structurally defective pipes of 4450 m, and 86 locations of mixed/incorrect connections rectified. Estimated contract value is RMB 14687.75 万, with a construction period of 360 日 calendar days.
• Hubei Wuxue — 70.8 km pipe network + plant renovation: In the Chengdong area along G347, approximately 70.80 km of new DN100–DN800 sewage pipes, including approximately 18.4 km of DN400 and approximately 6.9 km of DN800, plus 1770 new inspection manholes, and process upgrading and renovation of the wastewater treatment plant. Estimated contract value is RMB 14484.23 万.
• Sichuan Hongya — upgrading and expansion EPC: The EPC award price for the Hongya County Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrading, expansion, and supporting sewage pipe network construction and renovation project is RMB 7864.63 万 (tender control price RMB 8765.53 万), with a construction period of 365 天.

Three Common Signals

First, plant-network integration is replacing "single-point upgrading." Both the Huangmei and Wuxue projects are named "plant-network integration," with pipe network mileage (17 km² of full-area coverage, 70.8 km of new pipes) becoming the main cost component. This aligns with the policy direction in recent years of "improving the quality and efficiency of wastewater treatment" and "shoring up shortcomings in pipe networks" — issues such as low influent concentrations at wastewater treatment plants and wet-weather overflow are difficult to solve through in-plant process renovation alone and must be addressed by returning to the pipe network system itself.

Second, effluent standards continue to rise. The upgrading of Baojia and Wulong in Bishan from Grade 1B to Grade 1A is a typical county-level standard upgrade; and after the GB 18918 amendment added instantaneous value limits, "average compliance" is no longer sufficient, making control measures such as precise chemical dosing and precise aeration shift from optional to mandatory — the Luozhuang project's inclusion of Smart Water in the award list is precisely the implementation of this logic.

Third, individual contract amounts are declining, and packaged projects have become the mainstream. The five projects are concentrated in the range of 4700 万 yuan to 1.5 亿 yuan, with relatively small individual scales, but Bishan packaged 11 plants at once, and Huangmei packaged 17 square kilometers of pipe network at once, indicating that the county-level market is shifting from "scattered single-point upgrades" to "county-wide packaging and systematic governance." This imposes higher requirements on the contractor's survey and design coverage, multi-point construction organization capability, and later-stage operation coordination capability.

Why Now

The funding side is an important driver. 2026 年 has entered the period of the "14th Five-Year Plan" conclusion and the transition to the "15th Five-Year Plan." The "15th Five-Year Plan for Urban Renewal" clearly specifies new and upgraded wastewater treatment capacity of 2500 万 cubic meters/day and approximately 10 万 kilometers of wastewater pipe network, and localities have been approving and tendering within the year. At the same time, the application window for policy bank financing for environmental protection equipment, combined with the arrival of county-level fiscal matching funds, caused projects accumulated in the first half of the year to be released intensively in 9 月. The construction schedules of the Luozhuang, Huangmei, and Wuxue projects all point to commencement between 11 月 and 12 月 in 2026 年, with a highly consistent rhythm.

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 response to this round of county-level order waves, we have three suggestions:

• Calculate upgrading and expansion separately — upgrading focuses on processes and automatic control, while expansion focuses on civil works and equipment selection. Their cost structures and delivery risks are completely different, and packaged projects especially require secondary splitting during the bidding stage;
• Prioritize advanced denitrification processes with strong shock resistance and low carbon source requirements — under Grade 1A plus instantaneous value supervision, process stability is more valuable than peak indicators, and advanced denitrification routes that require no external carbon source have obvious advantages in county-level scenarios with low operation and maintenance manpower;
• Reserve Reclaimed Water interfaces simultaneously — scenarios in which county-level plant effluent is used for river channel replenishment and municipal miscellaneous use are increasing rapidly. Reserving Reclaimed Water intake pipelines and metering facilities in one go during the civil works window for upgrading and expansion has a marginal cost far lower than later retrofitting.

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.