The World Bank will grant Guangdong Province loans worth US$1 billion for curbing water pollution in the Pearl River during the next eight years.

This was revealed by Zeng Yuchang, deputy director of the World Bank Office in Guangdong Province, at a conference on environmental protection in Guangdong Province on Thursday.

The large sum of money will mainly go towards the construction of sewage treatment plants and solid rubbish disposal facilities in major Pearl River Delta cities, Zeng said.

"The World Bank loans will not only help Guangdong curb the worsening water pollution in the Pearl River, but also provide myriad investment opportunities to both domestic and overseas companies in the environment-protection industry," Zeng said.

Guangdong will import equipment, products and technologies in the environment-protection sector in the next few months, Zeng said, urging companies from home and abroad to participate in the effort.

Of the World Bank loans, US$200 million will be spent in Guangzhou and US$250 million in Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, Zeng said.

Guangzhou will construct more than 300 kilometres of underground sewage pipelines, a sewage treatment plant and solid rubbish disposal centre.

The sewage treat plant will treat more than 200,000 tons of sewage a day while the solid rubbish disposal centre will reach a daily capacity of 150,000 cubic meters.

Shenzhen will use the loans to clean the city's drinking water, improve water quality of the river sections in the city and build treatment facilities along the river banks.

The rest of the loans will mainly go to Foshan, Dongguan and other cities in the delta, Zeng added.

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