Workers lay sewage pipes at Renshu village in Yixing, a county-level city governed by Wuxi on Jan 19. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Wuxi has carried out wide-ranging programs over the past several years to improve its water quality and create a better ecological environment.

These programs have included controlling the sources of pollution and cleaning the riverbed silt.

Yixing, a county-level city governed by Wuxi, invested 2.5 billion yuan ($ 380 million) on domestic sewage treatment in rural areas last year to reduce pollution.

In October 2017, Yixing signed a Public Private Partnership (PPP) agreement with leading water enterprises in the country to deal with sewage treatment at more than 3,000 villages in the city.

There are over 200,000 households in rural areas of Yixing, producing a massive 40,000 metric tons of sewage every day.

Renshu village at Dingshu town in the southern area of the city started a trial operation in September last year.

Over the years, the Renshu River, a river flowing into Taihu Lake, has been polluted by untreated domestic sewage from the homes of the village's population of 550.

"The construction of the village's underground pipeline network has almost been completed. Domestic sewage will be transported to sewage treatment plants through the pipelines, which will help reduce sewage discharge into water bodies and improve the water quality," said Cao Xiaoping, deputy head of Dingshu town in Yixing.