Industry News
2026-10-15The Ministry of Ecology and Environment, together with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Water Resources, 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, setting out arrangements in four areas: spatial control, discharge control, water quality monitoring, and enforcement supervision. A technical guideline for water quality monitoring of agricultural irrigation water will be issued before the end of this year, and for irrigation water around industrial parks, monitoring shall in principle be carried out at least 2 times during the irrigation period.
I. Eight Departments Join Forces, Targeting a Neglected Chain
The safety of agricultural irrigation water was previously regarded mostly as a matter for agricultural and rural affairs or water resources departments. But the sources of pollutants are often not in the farmland itself — discharges from industrial enterprises and parks, and manure from livestock and poultry farms, enter the irrigation system through ditches, seepage pits, and underground channels, and ultimately settle on arable land and crops. This chain spans industry, agriculture, ecology, and the judiciary, and is difficult to close when advanced by a single department.
What stands out about this document is precisely the degree of joint action: the configuration in which the Ministry of Ecology and Environment leads, with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the Ministry of Water Resources participating, and the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate co-signing, means the document not only addresses "how to prevent" but also clarifies "how to investigate and how to adjudicate." The participation of the two supreme judicial organs usually appears in fields requiring unified enforcement standards and judicial application, and its signaling significance should not be underestimated.
The document states its positioning at the outset: water is the lifeblood of agriculture, and the safety of agricultural irrigation water is directly related to food security. Around this goal, the document proposes implementing source prevention, process control, and end-of-pipe supervision, and promoting the construction of a cross-departmental, full-cycle risk prevention and control system.
II. A Clause-by-Clause Breakdown of the Four Measures
1. Spatial Control: Keep High-Risk Projects Upstream of Farmland
Relying on means such as land approval and project environmental impact assessment, strictly control project access in high-risk areas such as around farmland and karst landforms. Karst landforms are singled out because caves and fissures in karst areas form natural fast channels through which surface pollutants can enter groundwater and irrigation water sources almost without soil filtration, rendering conventional surface interception measures ineffective there. Setting up barriers at the project access stage is the lowest-cost prevention and control method for such areas.
2. Discharge Control: Upgrading of Centralized Wastewater Treatment Facilities in Industrial Parks
- Investigate first, then remediate — carry out investigations of water-related pollution sources around farmland, establish a problem list, keep a ledger of outstanding issues, formulate remediation plans, and advance orderly rectification in accordance with laws and regulations.
- Upgrading of centralized treatment facilities — explicitly advance the upgrading of centralized wastewater treatment facilities in industrial parks around farmland, which directly corresponds to a new round of upgrading demand for wastewater treatment plants and reclaimed water facilities.
- Incorporating characteristic pollutants into standards and permits — carry out the formulation and revision of local water pollutant discharge standards, improve control requirements for characteristic pollutants, focus on strengthening control of total salt content, heavy metals, and toxic and hazardous pollutants, and incorporate the relevant requirements into pollutant discharge permit management in accordance with the law.
The inclusion of total salt content as a priority is a hard constraint for industrial wastewater treatment. If high-salinity wastewater from industries such as coal chemical, printing and dyeing, and pharmaceutical manufacturing enters the irrigation system without desalination treatment, it will cause soil salinization and crop yield reduction; and desalination is precisely the link with the highest share of investment and energy consumption in near-zero liquid discharge processes for industrial wastewater. Once this requirement is implemented, the treatment process routes of the relevant industrial parks will have to be recalculated.
3. Water Quality Monitoring: Monitoring Points Must Be Set at the Field Level
The document makes clear that it plans to issue a technical guideline for water quality monitoring of agricultural irrigation water before the end of this year, guiding local authorities to formulate monitoring plans in light of actual conditions. For irrigation water around industrial parks, monitoring shall in principle be carried out at least 2 times during the irrigation period, with time nodes including before sowing and during key crop growth periods (such as the seedling stage and the rice tillering stage).
Compared with continuous online monitoring at discharge outlets, monitoring of irrigation water has long had two weak points: first, insufficient frequency, often only once a year or not at all; second, distorted locations, with sampling points set upstream in ditches rather than at the actual field inlet, producing good-looking data that cannot reflect the true exposure level. The requirement to "set monitoring points at the field level, and let monitoring data speak as to whether irrigation water meets standards" is precisely aimed at these two points.
4. Enforcement Supervision: Integrated Air-Space-Ground Monitoring and Key Illegal Acts
Accelerate the construction of an integrated "air-space-ground" monitoring network, and strengthen supervision of discharge outlets and rainwater outlets of industrial parks, cluster zones, and livestock and poultry farming enterprises; resolutely crack down on environmental pollution crimes, investigate and punish illegal acts such as illegally setting up discharge outlets and secretly installing concealed pipes for discharge in accordance with the law, and focus on rectifying the illegal discharge of industrial wastewater and livestock and poultry manure through caves, seepage pits, and fissures.
III. What This Means for the Wastewater Treatment and Reclaimed Water Industry
First, the cost of water quality trust for reclaimed water agricultural reuse is rising. Using reclaimed water for farmland irrigation is one of the main directions of reclaimed water utilization in China, especially in water-scarce areas in the north and around irrigation districts. As the document imposes more systematic monitoring and traceability requirements on irrigation water quality, reclaimed water suppliers need to provide more complete water quality records and characteristic pollutant data; otherwise, downstream users will face compliance risks. This is both a threshold and an opportunity for well-regulated operating enterprises.
Second, the demand for upgrading and renovation of centralized treatment facilities in industrial parks has been clearly activated. The document specifically calls for "advancing the upgrading and renovation of centralized sewage treatment facilities in industrial parks around farmland," and simultaneously requires the revision of local standards and alignment with pollutant discharge permits. For solution providers with advanced treatment, desalination, and characteristic pollutant removal capabilities, this is a market window directly driven by regulation.
Third, total salt content and heavy metals have become hard indicators for process selection. The traditional compliance logic based mainly on COD and ammonia nitrogen will be expanded, and the proportion of membrane integration, evaporative crystallization, advanced oxidation, and other processes in industrial park wastewater plants is expected to increase. Brine disposal and resource recovery (such as salt separation to produce industrial salt) will also become mandatory supporting items.
Fourth, the value of data compliance is becoming prominent. From online monitoring at discharge outlets to field sampling during irrigation periods, once the data chain is connected, the integrity rate of online instruments, calibration records, and historical data preservation capabilities of operating units will directly affect their position in regulation and enforcement.
IV. Four Reminders for Industrial Parks and Operating Units
- First conduct an irrigation receptor survey — clarify which farmlands and irrigation districts the tailwater and reclaimed water actually flow to, and whether there are unconventional pathways via ditches or seepage pits. This is the foundation for all subsequent work.
- Supplement testing capabilities against characteristic pollutants — if the testing capability for total salt content, heavy metals, and toxic and hazardous pollutants relies on outsourcing, qualified institutions and frequency should be secured in advance to avoid queuing for centralized testing during irrigation periods.
- Advance upgrading and renovation in parallel with permit changes — the document requires that control requirements be incorporated into pollutant discharge permits in accordance with the law. Once the renovation plan is determined, permit changes should be initiated simultaneously to avoid a compliance gap where "facilities are renovated but permits remain unchanged."
- Pay attention to the implementation scope of the year-end technical guidelines — the monitoring technical guidelines will determine point layout, sampling methods, and evaluation indicators. It is advisable to compare them with existing plans as soon as they are released and make adjustments if necessary.
Overall, this document elevates agricultural irrigation water safety from an industry topic to a cross-departmental governance issue. For the wastewater treatment and reclaimed water reuse industry, the message it conveys is clear: whether sewage meets standards is no longer defined solely by data at the discharge outlet, but must be tested by the consequences after it enters the receptor.
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, and engineering construction to operation management for municipal wastewater 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 reduce operating costs and enhance system resilience in the green and low-carbon transition.
Source: Ministry of Ecology and Environment and seven other departments, "Notice on Further Strengthening the Prevention of Industrial and Other Wastewater Pollution Risks and Safeguarding the Safety of Agricultural Irrigation Water," compiled from public reports by Farmers' Daily, Anhui Science and Technology News, and others.
