Shanghai will spend 120 million yuan (US$16 million) to upgrade 10 kilometers of sewage pipes next year to prevent streets from being flooded in heavy rain, according to the Shanghai Drainage Administration.

The project is part of plans to improve the city's drainage capacity, which is scheduled to be nearly doubled in 2020 from this year's level.

The pipes to be upgraded are within the Outer Ring Road where the networks are decades old. At the moment they can't handle heavy rain, resulting in flooded streets or underpasses.

A total of 20 sections of the drainage pipes will be replaced with larger ones around one meter in diameter. The project will coincide with road repairs.

The city's drainage capacity reached 2,370.5 cubic meters of water per second this year, an increase of 10 percent from 2005, covering 686 square kilometers, after new sewers were built and old ones renovated.

The goal is to boost overall capacity to 4,148 cubic meters per second by 2020.

(Shanghai Daily December 20, 2007)