Construction crews are working underground using a "hanging shaft" technique within the barricaded site of the Xinkaipu Wastewater Treatment Plant's integrated plant-network efficiency improvement project on Mulian Road in Tianxin District, Changsha.

The project, launched in December 2025 with a total investment of about 621 million yuan, represents a key battle in Changsha's drainage network construction during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period.

The city's newly issued Action Plan for Comprehensively Advancing Urban Renewal (2026-2030) calls for renovating aging water supply pipelines and secondary water supply facilities, coordinating rainwater and sewage separation, and advancing wastewater system upgrades in sewage-collection zones including Xinkaipu, Kaifu, and Muyun.

Water flows from the Xiangjiang River into treatment plants and returns from thousands of households to the treatment plants again 鈥?and this entire cycle is directly tied to the water security of every family.

Nine Plants Provide the Confidence of 2.9 Million Tons in Daily Water Supply

Currently, Changsha Water Group operates nine water treatment plants with a combined daily supply capacity of 2.9 million tons, while the Zhushuqiao water diversion project delivers 700,000 tons per day, covering a service area of 956 square kilometers.

This network is divided by the Xiangjiang River into two relatively independent subsystems 鈥?east bank and west bank 鈥?that run north-south and together form the city's water supply security backbone.

Under the "15th Five-Year Plan" for water supply, Changsha will continue improving its multi-source, multi-plant, interconnected supply pattern as the city expands westward and toward new urban areas.

This network is also stretching westward.

The much-watched Leifeng Water Plant campus and water intake system project, invested and built by Changsha Water Group, serves areas including Meixi Lake International New City and Changsha High-Tech Zone.

Once operational, it will cover approximately 90 square kilometers and directly serve nearly one million permanent residents nearby.

The project is planned for a total daily supply capacity of 600,000 cubic meters, with the first phase building 300,000 cubic meters.

The overall project progress has already exceeded 35%, with the No. 2 clean water tank successfully put into operation and multiple water treatment facilities successively topped out.

Under the plan, the main works will be basically completed by November 2026, with water supply commencing in 2027 鈥?a critical piece in Changsha's "15th Five-Year Plan" water supply layout.

As the skeleton extends, dispatch coordination must keep pace.

Since the start of this year, Changsha Water Group has coordinated and optimized the supply areas of five plants including Nanhu and Houzishi, cleared bottleneck sections along key pipelines such as Kaifu Avenue, and completed the construction and expansion of booster stations at Jinxing North Road and Xinglian, further enhancing cross-regional allocation capacity.

During peak water demand in winter and summer or extreme weather events, the city relies on water plants, booster stations, and interconnected pipeline networks working behind the scenes, so that when residents turn on the tap, water flows steadily and abundantly.

Clearing Bottlenecks and Smoothing the Water Supply Aorta

The water supply pipeline network is the critical journey from the plant to the tap.

Tap water leaving the plant travels day and night through a crisscrossing web of municipal trunk mains, distribution pipes, and booster facilities into millions of homes.

The denser the network, the stronger the safeguard capacity 鈥?and the greater the responsibility.

Any unclogged bottleneck section or underperforming booster station can leave residents at the end of the line short of adequate water pressure.

To direct water where it is needed, Changsha is methodically clearing bottlenecks in its pipeline network: coordinating and optimizing supply areas across multiple plants, linking key pipeline sections such as Kaifu Avenue, and building and expanding a series of booster stations to make allocation between the east and west banks and between old and new urban areas more flexible.

Regional booster stations act like control valves on the supply network, flexibly dispatching water based on peak demand and pressure changes to push it farther, higher, and to where it is needed most.

Wherever the city expands, supply mains and booster facilities extend accordingly, and the "15th Five-Year Plan" water supply skeleton is being steadily put in place.

What touches people's daily lives most closely is the renovation of aging water supply pipelines and secondary water supply facilities.

The Action Plan for Comprehensively Advancing Urban Renewal in Changsha (2026-2030) explicitly calls for upgrading aging water supply pipelines and secondary supply facilities.

Hunan's housing and urban-rural development authorities have also included secondary water supply facility renovation in the key support category of "water supply network leakage control and aging renovation" within urban underground pipeline programs.

The renovation simultaneously updates old riser pipes inside buildings, pump room units, and metering facilities.

As the projects advance in batches, problems such as aging pipelines, unstable water pressure, and difficulty supplying upper floors will be gradually alleviated, giving residents more reliable water from source to tap.

Integrated Plant-Network Management for 4,650 Kilometers of Drainage Pipelines

Water management extends beyond supply to drainage.

In October 2024, the Changsha Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau signed entrusted operation agreements with a subsidiary of Changsha Water Group, adopting a model of entrusted operation plus performance-based contract management.

This involves the phased transfer of 4,650 kilometers of municipal drainage pipelines and 31 pumping stations, establishing an integrated plant-station-network framework 鈥?what Changsha explores as integrated plant-network management with payment based on performance.

In the past, plants were plants and networks were networks, each managing its own segment.

Now, unified special planning, unified technical standards, unified construction management, unified operation and maintenance, and unified funding guarantee are being applied to ensure sewage can enter, be treated, and be discharged properly.

With institutional mechanisms streamlined, pipeline construction is accelerating in tandem.

Entering the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, Changsha plans to implement 105 drainage pipeline renovation projects, building and upgrading approximately 1,445 kilometers of pipelines, and accelerating the rectification of identified mixed and misconnected pipes and repair of defects.

To minimize disruption to urban operations, most new pipelines use trenchless pipe-jacking technology, with some projects exceeding 70% trenchless methods 鈥?traffic flows above ground during the day while pipelines are quietly upgraded below.

The Xinkaipu project is a prime example of this mechanism in action.

Located in Tianxin District, it is a key project in Changsha's urban wastewater treatment reform.

"The project mainly does four things: building about 30 kilometers of new sewage pipelines along municipal roads such as Mulian Road and Tianxin Avenue, along with 23 smart interception wells; upgrading low-concentration plots at the source across about 595 hectares; repairing level-three and level-four structural defects in existing pipelines; and renovating the Baijia River interception weir," said Xu Ranzhi, deputy director of the project management department at Changsha Drainage Facilities Management Co., Ltd., in an interview.

The essence of integrated plant-network management is upgrading from single-point wastewater treatment to whole-area wastewater system governance, he noted.

The project is expected to be basically completed by the end of 2026, by which time the annual weighted average BOD5 concentration of influent at the Xinkaipu Wastewater Treatment Plant will reach over 100 milligrams per liter.

Less Waterlogging on Rainy Days as River Water Quality Quietly Improves

Pipelines are buried underground, and the most direct feeling for residents is less waterlogging on rainy days.

Xu told reporters that most of the original pipeline network in the project area was combined sewer, meaning rainwater and sewage mixed together during the rainy season and drained poorly, causing waterlogging.

After renovation, sewage and rainwater flow through separate pipes, and the new smart interception wells can precisely regulate water volume based on water levels and flow, significantly reducing surface waterlogging and making rainy-day travel safer.

The results of integrated plant-network management with performance-based payment are emerging.

According to Changsha's housing and urban-rural development authorities, the annual average influent BOD5 concentration at urban wastewater treatment plants in Changsha reached 86.5 milligrams per liter in 2025, up 7.2% from the previous year.

Fifteen wastewater treatment plants have implemented performance-based payment, which is expected to save approximately 110 million yuan in wastewater treatment service fees annually.

Currently, renovation in sewage-collection zones such as Xinkaipu and Kaifu is being rolled out, and the Muyun area is also being planned.

The city's 15 wastewater treatment plants are integrated with 4,621 kilometers of drainage pipelines, with a total daily wastewater treatment design capacity of 1.55 million tons.

Collection, conveyance, treatment, and discharge are all linked, and the water environment around residents is improving step by step, with the water quality of the Xiangjiang River and other waterways quietly getting better.

Looking further ahead to 2035, under the plan, the daily water supply capacity in Changsha's main urban area will reach approximately 3.5 million tons.

A single drop of water is charting a steadier and clearer course through this city of mountains, rivers, and islets.