The Guyuan city (China) has signed the Sponge City PPP Project Agreement with the winning bidder consortium including Beijing Capital Co., Ltd. and held the ground-breaking ceremony for the project.

This marks the official launch of the first sponge city PPP project in Guyuan.

The project covers a construction area of 44 square kilometers, and its investment is expected to be around CNY5 billion(US$749 million).

The project includes sponge neighborhoods, sponge parks and greenbelt, sponge highways and squares, water system restoration project, water supply and drainage network and sewage recycling project, etc. 

Since 2008, the number of Chinese cities affected by floods has more than doubled and in September 2015, the government launched the development of “sponge cities". A sponge city is one that can hold, clean, and drain water in a natural way using an ecological approach

The Guyuan Sponge City Project is one of 16 "sponge city" pilot projects which will receive financial support from the central government of the PRC, as jointly announced by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Ministry of Water Resources of the PRC. It is also one of the PPP demonstration projects of the Ministry of Finance of the PRC. 

As we reported in April, China Everbright Water Limited won the tender for the PPP project for the construction of the "sponge city" of Zhenjiang. The total investment amount for the Zhenjiang Sponge City Project is estimated to be approximately US$400 million, which comprises a US$180 million subsidy from the PRC central government and a US$214 million investment to be contributed by the project company.