A sewage treatment plant was completed recently in Haikou City, the capital of Hainan Province, becoming the largest of its kind in this southernmost province.

The new plant is expected to handle all the sewage in the city by the end of 2000, with a daily capacity of 300,000 tons.

The project cost 340 million yuan, including a government loan of 120 million yuan from Germany.

Hainan boasts a well-developed natural environment, but with its fast economic growth and urban population increase in the last decade, the ground waters and sea areas have been heavily polluted by sewage.

Currently, all major cities in this province have worked out their own sewage treatment plans.