Who says hosting nation of the Olympic Games, says big budget. And who says drought in that country, says big issues for water supply. Except for China? Officially, yes. The authorities in charge for water management in Beijing had claimed that the Games will not suffer from a lack of water. “Water demand during the 2008 Olympics will be guaranteed,” said Wu Jisong, director of the water supply program under the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, in 2006. And for good reasons. The gigantism of these Games is equivalent to those of Athens, which had necessitated the construction of many infrastructures, new subway lines, a tramway and some express roads! Despite the fact that Beijing needs new sport facilities, it is necessary that they are also green! Beijing wants to show the world that it was doing everything possible to get a facelift – and a “green” one. The UNEP report released a few months ago confirmed that Beijing authorities respected the wish of Green Olympics. According to the General Office of the Capital Afforestation Committee, 80 hectares of greens and parks will be planted in Beijing in 2008.
Water is the weak point of the City. Major efforts on a more efficient water management, environmentally friendly venues and education of Beijing citizens – especially in primary schools- for saving water, have been done. Any Olympic site uses the latest technology for the renewal of water. Biological treatments for domestic water have been installed. For each venue, rainwater is collected and treated for reuse in irrigation and cleaning roads. Many foreign companies (Veolia, Suez, Thames Water, Beijing Goldenstate, Autunes, Siemens ,…) have participated in this effort by equipping facilities and the Olympic Media Village.

Big Figures

Here are some figures that I was able to gather here and there. The Olympics are a big stake for Beijing. The city has decided to put the package to impress the world!

Beijing already spent more than 3billions of yuans for the Games preparation.

60 millions of flowers will be planted for the Games.
530000 trees were planted in the north of Beijing to green the city.
During 2008, Beiijing water needs will reach 3.89 billions cubic meters. Authorities said that 4.2 billions would be available. This represented a normal consumption plus 30%.
Rain this winter = 0cm. Snow = 0cm this winter.
Precipitations this year: – 70% from former years.
Aquifard water level in Beijing / Tianjin regions: -50 cm this year.
From Hebei, 300 millions cubic meters of water will be diverted for the back up during the OG.
2.5 million people in the regions around Beijing are suffering from lack of water.

Concerning venues built for the Olympic Games:
The National Stadium (Bird Nest) will collect and treat 80 tons of rainfall per hour, this will collect about 67000 cubic meters of rainwater and snow each year. 500 000 litres of drinking water will be produced per minute.
The National Aquatic Centre (Water Cube) will treat 60000 cubic metres of water per year from swimming pools. 10 500 cubic metres of rainwater can be reclaimed and 76% treated per year. In total, the venue will retreat 140000 cubic metres of water per year for reuse.
The Olympic Village is equipped with a pavement system for rainwater collecting. It can recover up to 3000 cubic metres of water and process for roads cleaning and irrigation purposes.
The venues built for the Games will collect a total of almost one million cubic metres of water. 60% of these waters can be reused.

http://www.planetark.org

http://news.bbc.co.uk

http://wilsoncenter.org

http://www.ajc.com

http://watercrunch.blogspot.com

http://www.unep.org

http://www.unep.org/downloads/BeijingReport.pdf

http://eg.china-embassy.org

http://www.treehugger.com

http://en.beijing2008.cn

http://www.chinapictorial.com.cn

A model for all of China

The main concern is what kind of city environment athletes will find? What sort of water will be supplied to the public? Those questions are not recent as they had been asked years ago, when Beijing knew it was choosed for organizing the 2008 OG. But this concern emerged since few weeks because of the worry of sportsmen. Some are afraid of the environment conditions in which they are going to compete (polluted air and not potable water), thinking it could have impact on their performances. But China wants to show to the world its credentials and the BOCOG has invested a lot for that: the Olympic Games would be an environmental model for Beijing and China. Making “Green olympics” is one of the 3 goals the BOCOG has set up.

The emblem for the Environment of the 2008 OG in Beijing

New water facilities

In November 2005, the BOCOG and the United Nations Environment Programme signed a Memorandum of Understanding, which aims to ensure that the OG will take place according to environmental account, especially for water quality improvements. The city of Beijing has made great investments for updating and building water and wastewater treatment plants: in the urban aera, 15 wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) have been rehabilited or built. 9 of them have been upgraded with a tertiary treatment process recycling water.

(source: Pr. Jiang Zhanpeng/Tsinhua University)

Those upgrades are one of the answers to the water shortage issue in Beijing: the recycled water will be used for non-potable purposes. In addition to those infrastructures, about 4000kms of sewer pipes will be laid. Thus, the sanitation system will improve the wastewater collection that expect to reach 2.5millions tons of wastewater discharge in a day, only for the urban aera of Beijing. In 2006, officially only 52% of wastewater wre collected and treated, but thanks to the municipals WWTP, this rate is expecting to raise to 90% with the treatment of more than 4 millions m3/day. 50% of this water will be reused for irrigation and ensure the water supply of ponds and lagoons in the Olympic village; formally, the rate barely reached 15%.

Official site of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games: http://en.beijing2008.cn/
UNEP site for Olmypic Games Partnership: http://www.unep.org/sport_env/Olympic_Games/index.asp