[The Hwankyung Ilbo] The Ministry of Environment released the ‘2018 Sewage Statistics’ that gives a single look at the current status of the country’s sewage.

The number of people receiving public sewage services is 49.83 million, or 93.9% of the total, an increase of 0.3%p compared to the previous year.

The rate of sewage supply was 95.9% in urban areas and 72.6% in rural and fishing villages. Small-scale sewage treatment facilities have been continuously distributed in the vulnerable rural villages, and the gap is narrowing every year.

In 2018, the newly installed sewage pipes nationwide were 6754 km, an increase of 4.1% compared to the previous year, and the length of the national sewage pipes is 156,257 kilometers.

The number of sewage treatment facilities increased by 41 and the capacity of sewage treatment facilities increased by 16,528㎥/day.

Among the sewage pipes currently in operation, 66,334 kilometers (42.%) of the sewage pipes have been in operation for more than 20 years.

In accordance with the policy to expand the reuse of sewage treatment water, the amount of re-use increased from 712 million tons annually in 2008 to 1.11 billion tons in 2018.

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