[Chinese Mainland] Chongqing Issues the "15th Five-Year Plan" for Urban Domestic Sewage Treatment and Drainage and Flood Control: Full Coverage of Pipe Network Node Sensing in the Central Urban Area by 2030

The Chongqing Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Commission has issued the "Chongqing '15th Five-Year Plan' Urban Domestic Sewage Treatment and Urban Drainage and Waterlogging Prevention Plan (2026—2030年)", designating five binding indicators and three anticipated indicators. In terms of sewage treatment, it is specified that by 2027年, the citywide centralized collection rate of urban domestic sewage shall reach 87%, the central urban area shall reach 90%, and the compliance rate of domestic sewage treatment in urban areas shall achieve 100%; meanwhile, districts and counties such as Bishan and Rongchang will be promoted to carry out reclaimed water allocation pilots. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, it is planned to build more than 1000 km of new urban sewage pipelines and reconstruct more than 2100 km.

I. Goal Setting: Binding Indicators Focus on "Collection Rate" and "Compliance Rate"

The Plan proposes that by 2030年, Chongqing will form an integrated management and control model of urban drainage "planning, construction, operation, and governance" compatible with the governance system of a megacity. Centered on this goal, the document designates five binding indicators and three anticipated indicators, targeting the "key small matters" around the public.

The core data in the field of sewage treatment include:

• Centralized collection rate of domestic sewage — by 2027年, the citywide urban area shall reach 87%, the central urban area shall reach 90%, and 2030年 shall stably remain above this level.
• Compliance rate of domestic sewage treatment — urban areas shall achieve 100%, and townships shall basically achieve 100%.
• Harmless disposal rate of sludge — urban areas shall reach 100%, and townships shall reach 90%.

Shifting from "treatment capacity" to "collection rate" is the most noteworthy directional change of this plan. For mountainous cities, pipeline network coverage and collection rate have long been tougher nuts to crack than plant capacity. Pressing binding indicators onto the collection rate means that the investment focus in the next five years will clearly tilt toward shoring up weaknesses in pipeline networks.

II. Reclaimed Water: Starting from "Pilots", Pointing to Industry, Municipal Use, and Ecological Water Replenishment

The Plan specifies that districts and counties such as Bishan and Rongchang will be promoted to carry out reclaimed water allocation pilots, using treated reclaimed water for industrial production, municipal greening, road sprinkling, ecological water replenishment, and other fields, to achieve circular utilization of water resources.

This formulation is highly consistent with the national direction. The National Office for Water Conservation previously specified that during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, China's main water-saving indicators include: by 2030年, the national water consumption per 10,000 yuan of GDP and water consumption per 10,000 yuan of industrial value added shall decrease by more than 10% compared with 2025年, respectively, and the utilization of unconventional water shall exceed 300亿 cubic meters. The Ministry of Water Resources previously disclosed that the total national utilization of reclaimed water has exceeded 256亿 cubic meters. Against this backdrop, Chongqing's approach of entering through district and county pilots is a typical path of "building mechanisms first, then scaling up".

In addition, the Plan requires continued promotion of "one point, one policy" and "one outlet, one policy" overflow pollution remediation, consolidating the achievements of urban black and odorous water body treatment, and ensuring long-term cleanliness. Overflow pollution treatment and reclaimed water allocation are actually two sides of the same coin: the former reduces impact loads on rainy days, while the latter absorbs the destination of stable daily effluent. Together, they determine the environmental performance and resource performance of sewage treatment plants.

III. Pipeline Network Construction: 1000 km Newly Built, 2100 km Reconstructed

Pipeline networks are the top priority of the Plan. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, Chongqing's quantitative arrangements are:

• Urban Sewage Pipe Network — Plans to build over 1000 km of new pipelines and reconstruct over 2100 km.
• Township Sewage Pipe Network — Plans to build and reconstruct over 1400 km.
• Stormwater Pipe Network — Plans to build over 800 km of new pipelines and reconstruct over 1200 km.
• Stormwater and Sewage Separation — Strictly implement stormwater and sewage separation, and tackle the pipeline network shortcomings in old urban areas and urban villages.

The reconstruction mileage is more than twice that of new construction, a structure worthy of industry attention. It indicates that Chongqing's pipeline network efforts have shifted from large-scale extensional expansion to connotative construction focused on stock upgrading, misconnection rectification, and defect repair. Demand for inspection and assessment, trenchless rehabilitation, pipeline materials, and manhole chamber renovation will rise accordingly.

IV. Digital and Intelligent Empowerment: AI Agent and Sensing Equipment 100% Coverage

Digital and intelligent empowerment is one of the highlights of the Plan. Chongqing will build a new "source—network—plant—river" full-chain smart management model, create an urban flood prevention AI Agent with intelligent analysis and decision-support capabilities, and achieve a closed loop of pre-rain warning, in-rain monitoring, and post-rain assessment.

Sensing equipment will be deployed at key points of the drainage pipeline network to provide real-time and precise perception of network operation conditions. By 2030年, the sensing equipment coverage rate at important nodes of the municipal sewage pipeline network in the central urban area will reach 100%.

This corroborates another recent industry development: Henan Province has issued the Technical Standard for Central Control System Construction of Urban Sewage Treatment Plants (DBJ41/T374-2026), which will take effect on 2027年2月1日, unifying the design, construction, and acceptance requirements for central control systems. One governs the perception of the "network," and the other governs the control of the "plant." The standards of both localities point to the same thing — the digitalization of drainage systems is moving from demonstration to standard configuration.

V. Drainage and Flood Prevention: Sponge City Compliance Area Ratio Targets 80%

In terms of flood prevention, Chongqing aims for 2030年 of the built-up area meeting Sponge City standards 80%, allowing rainwater to be absorbed on site through permeable paving, sunken green spaces, rain gardens, and other methods. At the same time, high-risk areas such as underpasses, underground pedestrian passages, and rail transit entrances and exits will be routinely inspected, "one point, one plan, one strategy" emergency response plans will be formulated, and mobile pump trucks and other drainage equipment will be fully equipped.

For a mountainous megacity, flood prevention and sewage treatment are highly coupled in physical space: pipeline misconnections and combined stormwater-sewage flows are both causes of black-odorous water bodies and triggers of waterlogging. Incorporating the two systems into the same five-year plan for coordinated management is itself progress in governance thinking.

VI. Institutional Safeguards: Regulations, Plant-Network Integration, and Performance-Based Payment

At the institutional level, the Plan specifies three arrangements:

• Legislation — Issue the Regulations on Urban Drainage and Sewage Treatment of Chongqing Municipality.
• Operation and Maintenance Model — Implement the "plant-network integration" operation and maintenance model.
• Settlement Mechanism — Implement performance-based payment assessment and settlement.
• Technical Standards — Research and issue technical standards such as smart drainage pipeline network construction suited to the actual conditions of mountainous cities.

The combination of "plant-network integration + performance-based payment" will change the previous fragmented management pattern of "plants for plants, networks for networks," and will also bind the operator's revenue to the overall system performance. Enterprises capable of providing integrated services from pipeline network diagnosis and plant/station upgrading to smart scheduling will gain a clearer foothold under such institutional design.

VII. Industry Observation: Three Predictable Demand Windows

Taking the indicators and tasks of the Plan together, three types of sustained demand are likely to emerge in the Chongqing market over the next five years:

• Upgrading of Existing Pipeline Networks—Renovation scale far exceeds new construction; inspection, rehabilitation, and stormwater-sewage diversion reconstruction are the sectors with the highest certainty.
• Perception Layer Construction—The coverage rate of perception devices at key nodes in central urban areas shall reach 100% by 2030年, with concentrated release of demand for flow meters, level gauges, online water quality analyzers, and edge computing devices.
• Reclaimed Water Allocation—Pilot projects first with supporting policies to follow; industrial and municipal miscellaneous use are the most realistic starting scenarios, with subsequent expansion expected toward ecological water replenishment.

Industry insiders believe that Chongqing, as a dual sample of both a megacity and a mountainous city, offers a "15th Five-Year Plan" pathway with reference value for similar cities: constraining mandatory indicators on collection rates and compliance rates, using pipeline network renovation to address historical deficits, using perception devices and AI to improve operational efficiency, and using plant-network integration and performance-based payment to resolve incentive mechanisms—without any one of these four, plans easily remain on paper.

TIANYI TECH Co., Ltd. (TIANYI LIMITED) has long been deeply engaged in the fields of wastewater treatment and reclaimed water reuse. Centering on three major directions—low-carbon processes, resource recovery, and smart operations—it provides full-chain services from solution design, equipment manufacturing, engineering construction to operation management for municipal wastewater treatment plants, industrial parks, and various water-using entities. With the goal of "stable compliance, energy saving and consumption reduction, and resource circulation," the company continuously helps customers optimize pipeline networks, plants and stations, and reclaimed water systems as an integrated whole in the green and low-carbon transition.

Source: China Construction News report on the "Chongqing Municipality '15th Five-Year Plan' Urban Domestic Wastewater Treatment and Urban Drainage and Waterlogging Prevention Plan (2026—2030年)", public information from the Chongqing Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Commission, and public data from the National Water Conservation Office of the Ministry of Water Resources.