On May 10, thereporter learned from the Bureau ofEcology and Environmentof theYichang City, Yichang has,for thesecondtime, been appraised as Excellent in the 2019National Assessment for theexecution of theNational Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Water Pollution (aliasTen Regulations of Water).
In 2019, the government has spared no efforts in adopting innovative measuresin protecting the Yangtze River.To strengthen the pollution prevention, Yichang has adopteddifferentiated measures in addressingthevarious problems in 134enterprises. Those measures include: closing, upgrading, relocating to industrial zone, and changing lines of production.So far, 30 enterprises have been shut down; 33 have upgraded; 19 have entered in industrial zone or started to relocate and 3 have changed lines of production. Within 1 km along the Yangtze River with its tributaries, those have all been cleared including industrial pollution, cage aquaculture, illegal sewage outlets and wharfs. All towns and villages have been equipped with sewage treatment system and the comprehensive utilization rate of livestock and poultry manure has reached 82.24%. Moreefforts will be made to reduce the total amount of water pollutants.
Ecological rehabilitation is carried out while boundary lines for ecological function and environmental quality is under strict control. The afforestationhas been completed along 178 kilometers bank line of the Yangtze River’s mainstream and tributaries and 263 square kilometers ofthe whole Yangtze River Valley. The green coverage rate in urban areas is to reach more than 40% while the per capita green space will rise to more than 15 square meters. Pilot projects have been launched to rehabilitate and protect ecosystems of mountains, forests, fields, grasses, rivers and lakes. By the end of 2019, 56 projects had started with a total investment of 3.109 billion yuan.
The government will innovate working mechanisms and coordinate with various departments’ forces to establish a collaborative law enforcement and police---cooperation mechanism, andthe public prosecutor office for the protection of the Yangtze River to crack down on crimes committed in the ecological field of the Yangtze River. Overcome the difficulties of “fragmented regulation” and establish the comprehensive law enforcement authority in Huangbaihe valley. The establishment of ecological compensation mechanism, in which results of water quality monitoring and evaluation are “double-linked” with the allocation of water ecological compensation funds and phosphate mining plans, has been rated as the first among the top ten nationwide grassroots water-quality controlcases.
Pollution prevention and control at ports and wharfs will be strengthened through improving top-level design and issuing emergency plans for pollution accidents involving ships as well as plans for construction of facilities for reception, transshipment and disposal of pollutants from ports and ships. Four pollutantstorageand transshipment terminals have been built, whichincludeHongsheng in Zhijiang City, Fuguang in Zigui County. In addition,17 storageand transshipment ship companies have been set up. An information system for coordinated control of pollutants from ships has been launched to prevent any garbage from entering the Yangtze River.
Comprehensive measures have been taken to seek both temporary and permanent solutions of water-quality control. In 2019, water quality of Yichang City’s 9 surface sections included in “Ten Regulations of Water” assessment has maintained at A-level. Three mainstreams’ sections in the Yangtze river of total phosphorus concentration fell by 37%, 34% and 32% respectively compared with 2015 and water quality all meet Ⅱ--class standard.
This year, priority will be given to the improvement of water---environment quality with focus laid on ecologicalconservationand rehabilitation of the Yichang section of the Yangtze River.All in all,“battle” will continue to fight for pollution prevention and control. (Reporter Yang Jing; correspondent Wang Jingjing)