(BEIJING, Feb. 5) -- The nine sewage treatment plants in Beijing's urban area treated 780 million cubic meters of waste water, or 90 percent of Beijing's total in 2006, meeting its water purification target for the Beijing Olympic Games ahead of time, the Venue and Environment Department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) said Monday.

The city's sewage disposal capacity of 2.914 million tons per day has now exceeded the objective of 2.68 million tons per day set in its bid to host the Olympic Games, the department quoted the Beijing Water Drainage Group as saying.

During the 2001-2006 period, the group built a total of 14 sewage treatment plants with a combined daily capacity of 1.834 million tons, in addition to the capacity of 1.08 million tons of the three plants built before 2001. The total capacity has now outstripped the Olympic bid target of 2.68 million tons per day, the group said.

The group is striving to reuse 50 percent of the treated water in 2007, a target for the Olympic Games.