Former Site of the East District Sewage Treatment Plant

Former Site of the East District Sewage Treatment Plant

The former site of the East District Sewage Treatment Plant is a protected cultural heritage site of Shanghai.

The former site of the East District Sewage Treatment Plant is located at No. 1283 Heijian Road. It was originally built in 1926, with an office building covering a land area of 227 square meters and a construction area of 455 square meters. Constructed with reinforced concrete and facing south, the structure features an Art Deco style. The parapet gradually steps inward from the coping line. The evenly spaced windows are accented with horizontal decorative bands, and the entrance portal is particularly distinctive, with a facade featuring geometrically recessed and protruding wall treatments. The compressor room, a single-story structure made of reinforced concrete and facing east, shares a similar architectural style with the office building.

Completed in the 15th year of the Republic of China (1926), it was the first urban sewage treatment plant in Asia at that time. As a secondary treatment facility using the activated sludge process, it is surprisingly still in normal operation today, demonstrating the foresight and practicality of its original design.

The main structures include: one pump house, four aeration tank groups (16 tanks in total), six vertical flow secondary sedimentation tanks, one air compressor house, and 33 sludge drying beds. The daily treatment capacity is 17,000 cubic meters, and the treated effluent is discharged into the Huangpu River.

On April 4, 2014, the Shanghai Municipal People's Government officially designated and announced the former site of the East District Sewage Treatment Plant as a protected cultural heritage site of Shanghai (Shanghai Government Document [2014] No. 29).