The standing members of the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee held a meeting Wednesday to hear a report on the implementation of the river chief and lake chief system across the province.
The participants gave the thumbs-up to the initial progress of the river chief and lake chief system across the province, according to a statement released after the meeting.
The river chief and lake chief system is advocated and promoted by General Secretary Xi Jinping and a major decision-making deployment of the Party Central Committee's innovative system of river and lake governance, the statement said.
Greater efforts need to be made to strengthen system awareness, follow scientific laws, coordinate and promote water resources protection, water pollution prevention, water environment control and water ecological restoration, adhere to the comprehensive management of forest, rivers and lakes, boost comprehensive management of upstream and downstream watersheds by taking into account flood control and pollution control and industrial layout, the protection of rivers and lakes, industrial pollution, domestic pollution, agricultural pollution, soil pollution and water pollution and other pollution sources so as to enhance the integrity, synergy and effectiveness of river and lake governance, according to the statement.
It is necessary to strengthen the awareness of innovation, meet the needs of the people for a beautiful ecological environment, and innovate in terms of ideas, systems, methods, and technical measures to effectively improve the level of river and lake governance, the statement said.
The provincial office for river chief system has organized an inspection and assessment of the river chief system implemented in the province in the first half of the year.
The results show that the river chief system has effectively promoted the continuous improvement of the rivers and lakes in the province. Up to now, 13 counties or districts have issued the "Ecological Rivers and Lakes Action Plan".
In the meantime, the provincial government has handled 1,115 illegal cases with more than 550 rectified, which stands for a rectification rate of 49.3%.
The river chief system has served its purpose as a protection procedure that promotes better coordination of government departments has improved the quality of China's waterways.
In December last year, the central government released a document ordering the system, which is linked to the performance evaluations of top officials, to be established nationwide by the end of 2018.
The implementation of the “river chief system”, and the lifetime liability for ecological environmental damage help solve the incompatibility between the long-term management of water environment and the short-term nature of officials’ tenure, the liability and assessment system also raised the officials’ awareness and attention on this matter.
