# Measuring the Performance of Wastewater Treatment in China
## 3 Empirical Analysis and Results  
### Results and Analysis  
Descriptive Statistics of Inputs and Outputs  
We used DDF to run the input and output data for the 31 regions of China from 2011 to 2015 [41; 42; 43; 44; 45]. Table 2 lists the descriptive statistics of the input and output variable data for the 31 regions. Table 2 implies the following: (A) The change in wastewater treatment expense is unstable from 2012 to 2015--sometimes going up (26%), sometimes going down (\(-11\%\)). The annual budget policy of the regions on wastewater treatment expense is unstable; (B) The change of GDP in the regions is continuously increasing but does fall a bit from 11% to 6%. This implies that GDP during the 12 th Five-Year Plan is not the same as that during the 11 th Five-Year Plan, in which the GDP growth rate was stable at above 10%; (C) the change in discharged wastewater shows a continued mild increase in this period between 2% and 4%. This implies that the quantity of water consumption has still slightly risen; (D) COD has continuously decreased from 2011 to 2015 by between \(-2\%\) and \(-3\%\), meaning that the water pollution situation has actually improved over the period. The statistical findings of Table 2 are as follows: \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l} \hline \hline
**Input Variable** & **Output Variable** \\ \hline (I) Capital (I) Population (I) Expense & (O) GDP (OBad) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Input and output variables. GDP: Gross domestic production, COD: Chemical oxygen demand. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l l l l l l l} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Year**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Year**} & **Capital (100** & **Population** & **Expense (100** & **GDP (100** & **Wastewater** & **COD** \\  & & **Million RMB)** & **(10,000)** & **Million RMB)** & **Million RMB)** & **(10,000 Tons)** & **(Tons)** \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{2011} & Max & 26,749.7 & 10,505 & 58.14 & 53,210.2 & 785,587 & 1,982,497 \\  & Min & 516.3 & 303 & 1.27 & 605.8 & 4635 & 26  
(A) Capital: Figure 1 shows that average capital rose by 82% from 2011 to 2015. Shandong remains as the top province for fixed assets invested at 2674.9 to 4831.2 billion RMB. Tibet remains as the province with the smallest amount of fixed assets invested at 51.63 to 129.57 billion RMB. (B) Population: Figure 2 shows that Guangdong is the biggest populated province, increasing from 105.0 to 108.4 million people. Tibet is the smallest populated province, increasing from 3.03 to 3.24 million. (C) Expense: Figure 3 shows that the average wastewater discharge expense rose by 26% from 2011 to 2015, but actually dropped \(-11\%\) in 2012. The annual budget policy on wastewater treatment expense is unstable in these regions. Jiangsu had the biggest expense on wastewater discharge treatment at 5.814 billion RMB in 2011 and the second biggest in 2015 at 4.753 billion RMB. Zhejiang spent 4.958 billion RMB in 2015, putting it at the top of all provinces that year. Hainan had the lowest wastewater discharge treatment expense at 127 million RMB in 2011, while Ningxia had the lowest in  
Figure 1: Average capital over 2011–2015 in China. Figure 2: Average population over 2011–2015 in China. 2015 at only 70 million RMB. The growth rate of 26% in total wastewater discharge treatment expenses was less than the GDP growth rate of 39%. This is proof that some provinces did not comply with the environmental policies of the 12 th Five-Year Plan, as they emphasized economic growth over the environment. (D) GDP: Figure 4 shows that average GDP rose by 39% from 2011 to 2015. Guangdong was always the most developed province, with its GDP rising from 5321 to 7281.3 billion RMB. Tibet had the lowest GDP, improving from 60.5 to 102.6 billion RMB throughout the 5 years. Overall, the GDP growth rate under the 12 th Five-Year Plan was less than the 11 th Five-Year Plan, which had a stable GDP growth above 10%. (E) Wastewater discharge: Figure 5 shows the average wastewater discharge rose by 12% from 2011 to 2015.