In a territory where the climate crisis accelerates drought patterns, disrupts hydrological cycles, and deepens the vulnerability of major cities in northern China, Harbin emerges as a critical point within a water challenge that combines unprecedented environmental, demographic, and productive pressures. The city, located in the heart of Heilongjiang and exposed to winter temperatures reaching –30°C, depends on a historical system based on surface water sources highly sensitive to seasonal changes, particularly the Songhua River and the Mopanshan Reservoir, whose thermal oscillation and variable quality compromise the continuity and stability of supply. This scenario becomes even more complex amid the rapid growth of the urban‑industrial market, which demands more than 800,000 m³/day to sustain residential, manufacturing, logistics, and service activities that accompany the expansion of a metropolis projected to surpass 10 million inhabitants in the coming decade.
In this context, the Harbin Integrated Water Supply and Treatment Project presents itself as a structural response to a problem that no longer admits conventional solutions. Its strategic objective is to transform a vulnerable and fragmented system into resilient, modernized, and diversified infrastructure capable of operating stably under extreme conditions and guaranteeing safe water in an increasingly uncertain climate landscape. The initiative is deployed at strategic points across the municipality, integrating facilities such as the New District Plant, the Seventh Plant, and the Binxi Plant, all located within Harbin’s central water corridor, where industrial activity and major residential clusters converge.
The project’s rationale lies in the urgent need to replace obsolete infrastructure, reduce historical dependence on a single surface source, safeguard water quality, and anticipate extreme events that could compromise public health and economic continuity. Its technical justification is based on accumulated risks related to winter turbidity, point-source contamination, and pressure on aquifers, while its strategic justification aligns with the opportunity to position Harbin as a national model of water security for cold‑climate cities. The actor ecosystem includes the municipal operator Harbin Water Supply Group, advanced treatment technology providers, basin authorities responsible for the Songhua River, infrastructure project structurers, and external verification entities ensuring traceability of benefits, including potential metrics under the VWB framework for impacts linked to water quality and availability.
Its connection to the Water Positive strategy is direct: the project complies with the principles of additionality by generating improvements that would not occur without this intervention, reinforces intentionality by focusing on reducing structural risks of the urban water system, and ensures traceability through continuous monitoring, verifiable reporting, and a technological architecture designed to transparently demonstrate how each treated and secured cubic meter contributes to basin resilience and the well‑being of the population that depends on it.
The project arises from a technical and strategic opportunity responding to the urgent need to correct critical inefficiencies in the metropolitan water system, characterized by structural losses, limited treatment capacity, and high exposure to severe climatic variability. The implemented solution is based on an integrated complex of facilities operating under a highly technical multi‑source scheme that combines flows from the Songhua, Mopanshan, and Xiquanyan reservoirs with backup groundwater sources, all processed through treatment trains incorporating pre‑oxidation, dual‑media filtration, UV‑chlorine disinfection, and advanced operational automation. This architecture enables the transformation of up to 800,000 m³ of raw water per day into potable water, maintaining stable parameters even under climate stress scenarios, demand peaks, or abrupt changes in surface flows.
Immediate benefits include quantifiable reductions in technical losses, improved hydraulic performance, lower emissions associated with inefficient energy consumption, and recovery of water resources by reducing pressure on strategic aquifers. These advances are made possible through coordination among the technological developer, the municipal operator Harbin Water Supply Group, specialized providers for cold‑climate treatment systems, and strategic partners responsible for external verification and traceability. The model’s replication capacity is strengthened by its modular design, compatibility with national water safety regulations, and adaptability to basins facing extreme conditions.
The immediate opportunity for action is reinforced by increasingly stringent regulations, the need to guarantee operational continuity, and social demand for resilient infrastructure. Leading companies in public services, engineering, sustainability, and asset management see in this intervention a direct mechanism to strengthen their ESG positioning, differentiating themselves through solutions that anticipate new regulations and deliver tangible benefits to regional water security. This operational and strategic approach demonstrates that business participation is key to accelerating the transition toward robust, efficient systems prepared for future climate challenges.
The proposed technical solution is a hybrid system combining grey, green, and digital infrastructure that integrates advanced potabilization processes with watershed protection measures and continuous monitoring. The treatment train includes screening, pre‑oxidation, coagulation‑flocculation, sedimentation, dual‑media filtration, and UV‑chlorine disinfection, all automated via SCADA and real‑time sensors. This configuration, designed to operate in cold climates with marked seasonal variability, ensures an integrated capacity close to 800,000 m³/day. Alternatives such as full ultrafiltration or exclusive groundwater schemes were evaluated, but the selected approach offered the best balance of robustness, cost, and regulatory compatibility.
The intervention strengthens water security by reducing vulnerability associated with dependence on a single source, improving quality control, and lowering pressure on backup aquifers. Its suitability for the Harbin context reflects the need for a system capable of withstanding extreme winters and abrupt flow fluctuations, under criteria of energy efficiency, regulatory compliance, future integration potential, and replicability in other cold‑climate cities. Within the Water Positive and VWBA framework, the solution delivers additionality by increasing the volume of safe water, ensures intentionality by focusing on critical risks, and guarantees traceability through continuous measurement and verification.
Expected benefits include measurable improvements in water quality, environment, and economy: turbidity stabilized below 0.2 NTU, fewer substandard events, reduced energy consumption, optimized pumping operations, lower emissions, and safer sludge management. Socially, the project strengthens public health, creates skilled employment, and increases the resilience of water‑dependent productive sectors. Economically, it reduces emergency costs, operational failures, and regulatory penalties, and improves access to ESG certifications and financing.
Risks include technological failures, hydrological variability, accidental contamination, sludge generation, and public perception concerns. Mitigation measures include redundancies in critical equipment, contingency plans, controlled bypasses, updated operational protocols, periodic drills, and shared governance between operators and basin authorities. Climate resilience is reinforced through oversized critical components, flexibility for future technologies, and adjustable intake operations based on quality and availability.
The model is scalable to other cold regions facing similar challenges of seasonality and aging infrastructure, provided supportive regulatory frameworks and resilient financing mechanisms are in place. Indicators such as cost per safe m³, reduction in incidents, and improved continuity of service position it as a competitive option supported by public‑private alliances, technological partnerships, and external verification.
Project implementation is organized into sequential phases, progressing from a precise diagnostic to stable, optimized operation. It begins with reconstruction of the hydrological and operational baseline, identifying flows, water quality, losses, and critical points that guide the technical design. The design phase defines treatment capacities, interconnections among sources, and automation requirements. Modular installation minimizes service interruptions, followed by commissioning tests that calibrate instruments, adjust parameters, and compare performance against the baseline. Continuous operation is consolidated with standardized protocols and clear performance metrics.
The system deploys a robust treatment train, screening, pre‑oxidation, flocculation, sedimentation, dual‑media filtration, and UV‑chlorine disinfection, managed through SCADA and IoT sensors monitoring flow, turbidity, pH, conductivity, pressure, and residual chlorine. This configuration was selected for its reliability in cold climates, cost‑effectiveness, and compatibility with raw water conditions. Total system capacity reaches approximately 800,000 m³/day, with operational efficiency above 95% even under seasonal variability.
The baseline registers prior issues of quality non‑compliance, losses, high energy consumption, and operational incidents. KPIs measured before, during, and after implementation include delivered volume, turbidity, service continuity, aquifer pressure, specific energy consumption per m³, and critical alarm frequency. Measurements rely on online sensors, accredited laboratory analyses, and periodic reports, with frequencies ranging from real‑time readings to monthly and quarterly summaries.
Traceability is assured through georeferenced hydraulic schematics and continuous digital records in SCADA and IoT systems, with automatic alarms upon deviations and reports generated for relevant stakeholders. External audits, independent verification of water balances, and systematic comparison of “with‑project” versus “without‑project” scenarios ensure data integrity.
Operational governance assigns precise roles: the municipal operator manages plant and network operations; technology providers supply specialized support; regulatory authorities oversee compliance; and external verifiers validate data and generated benefits. Maintenance planning includes preventive, corrective, and software/equipment updates.
Continuous monitoring and improvement evaluate safe water volumes, reduced losses, improved quality, and contaminants removed, applying VWBA/WQBA methodologies. Operational data allow adjustments to processes, optimization of consumption, and upgrades to technologies when required. Long‑term benefit permanence is ensured through long‑term operation contracts, continuous monitoring, periodic performance reviews, and adaptability to climate or regulatory changes.
The project implements an integrated potabilization and distribution intervention based on a multi‑source system combining surface intakes from the Songhua River, Mopanshan Reservoir, and Xiquanyan Reservoir with backup aquifers, all processed through advanced facilities capable of operating in extreme cold. Technically, the system incorporates a complete treatment train, screening, pre‑oxidation, coagulation‑flocculation, sedimentation, dual‑media filtration, and UV‑chlorine disinfection, integrated with pumping systems and motorized valves managed through a SCADA‑IoT platform monitoring flow, pressure, turbidity, pH, conductivity, and disinfectant residual. The combined nominal capacity approaches 800,000 m³/day, ensuring supply to urban populations, industry, and services, aligned with Chinese national drinking water standards and WHO benchmarks, and prepared for compatibility with future frameworks such as ESRS E3.
The solution addresses Harbin’s structural water challenges: dependence on a single surface source, vulnerability to extreme quality events, pressure on emergency aquifers, and health risks linked to non‑compliance episodes. Compared to the baseline, characterized by obsolete processes, limited treatment capacity, and limited real‑time control, the new system introduces redundancy, operational stability, and full traceability, transforming the supply network into climate‑resilient infrastructure. It is estimated to secure hundreds of millions of m³/year of safe water, significantly reduce substandard events, improve critical parameters such as turbidity and microbiological indicators, and lower specific energy consumption and associated emissions. It further reduces pressure on strategic aquifers, strengthens public health by lowering waterborne disease risks, and enhances the economic resilience of water‑dependent sectors.
Strategically and commercially, the project integrates directly into the Water Positive roadmap of the city and corporate partners by generating additional, intentional, and traceable volumetric and quality benefits under VWBA/WQBA. It delivers concrete ESG advantages: strengthened social license to operate, enhanced reputation as leaders in critical infrastructure, competitive differentiation, and compliance with increasingly stringent regulations. It aligns with global commitments including the SDGs, CEO Water Mandate, Science Based Targets for Water, and NPWI, positioning the project as a strategic water asset within the territorial value chain.
The model is highly replicable and scalable across other basins and cold‑climate cities facing similar challenges of seasonality, aging infrastructure, and mounting water pressure. Expansion is supported by modularity, standardized processes, proven cold‑climate technologies, and partnerships with municipal operators, engineering firms, local governments, and green‑blue infrastructure financiers. In terms of final impact, the project contributes substantially to basin water balance by stabilizing safe volumes, reducing groundwater pressures, and strengthening resilience against droughts and extreme events. At the same time, it generates skilled employment, improves public health and access to water, and sends a clear message to investors, clients, and society: the transition toward a more resilient, regenerative water economy is possible when rigorous technical planning is combined with strategic vision and long‑term alliances.
