Water authority officials are eyeing Beijing as site for a waste water processing plant, according to the Global Times.
The plant is designed to use up less energy and produce high-quality recycled water.
"Water treatment plants in Beijing are overloaded. With high GDP per capita and great water processing nature, the city needs an advanced plant," said Chen Tie, chief engineer of the Beijing Water Authority, during a conference on Friday regarding the plant's site.
The environment ministry welcomes the construction of the plant and sees it as a good precedent.
"Building it in Beijing will set a strong example," said Wang Jinnan of the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
According to the Global Times report, as many as 3,800 water treatment plants are located in different parts of China, but most of them use up a large volume of energy and include silt in the treated water, resulting in low-quality outputs.
The proposed Beijing plant was announced in 2013 by a group of environmentalists headed by Qu Jiuhui of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
The team expects to complete the designing stage by 2016 and have the construction started in 2018.
Along with including little silt in the treated water and consuming less energy, the proposed facility will also have a higher recycling rate of resources like nitrates and phosphates, according to the team.