The project, worth US$281 million, aims to support the sustainability of the environment development in nine cities and counties of the province, including Weifang, Weihai and Yantai.

Global Environment Facility (GEF) will also give the project a grant of US$5 million to reduce land-based pollution along the Yantai coast and the Bohai Sea by piloting septic tank waste management techniques.

Shandong, one of China's fastest growing provinces, currently faces a shortage of water, inadequate waste water collection and treatment and lack of solid waste management facilities, which have caused the urban environment to deteriorate and the shallow Bohai Sea ecosystem to suffer.

The WB will help Shandong address these challenges through the project, which involves building and upgrading waste disposal facilities and improving financial efficiency of key urban environmental services, said the project manager Wang Shenhua.