CHINA TOUR, 1983

WANXIAN

please click to enlarge

Sewage Disposal in Wanxian: In the "old" days - perhaps not really that long ago - coolies carrying two "honey-buckets" on a bamboo pole would circulate early every morning and pick up the "night-soil" from each house. It was usually granny who would open the door and "sell" to the coolie the contents of the household's chamber pots. The coolie would pay her in coupons ('tikkees'). In turn, the coolie would sell his loads to the operator of the honeycart, and he to the operator of a fufu-boat. Finally, the cargo would be sailed and sold to a farmer, and the boat would return to town carrying the farmer's produce. At set times, all "tikkees" could be redeemed for cash, and grandma would get her pocket money.

NOTE: the story of the fufu-boat is from G.R.G. Worcester's monumental work: "The Junks and Sampans of the Yangtze".
Although it deals with Soochow Creek near Shanghai, it is applicable to allmost of "old" China. An update is presented below, but first, I want to recommend Worcester's book for giving some fairly detailed navigation , piloting information and history/legend about the Yangtze in a most informative and pleasant writing style.
UPDATES:
[ONE] - July 1, 2003: Wuhan has got a loan of US$83 million from the Asian Development Bank for its three sewage disposal centers, a sewage pipeline of more than 100 kms and a number of pumping stations. The city's sewage disposal company will raise the rest of the funds needed for the construction of these projects by levying sewage disposal taxes. The city discharges 2.05 million tons of sewage and industrial wastewater every day. It plans to raise the sewage disposal rate to 70% by 2010.
[TWO]: for Nov. 1, 2001 update on Chongqing/ Three Gorges Sewage Treatment, please click here