East China’s Jiangsu province has made every effort to promote the river chief system in a bid to improve the ecological system of the rivers and lakes across the province. JSBC has the story.
Shilianghe Reservoir is the largest reservoir in Jiangsu and an important water source supporting the economic and social development of Lianyungang. For a long time, due to reasons such as disorderly sand mining and enclosure aquaculture, the ecological environment around the Shilianghe Reservoir has been destroyed and the water body has been severely polluted.
Starting from 2019, Lianyungang has been promoting the comprehensive renovation of the Shilianghe Reservoir by clearing and dismantling fish cages, and dismantling sand mining and transportation ships. Under the collaborative management of river chiefs at all levels, the Shiliang River Reservoir Area has restored 3.8 million square meters of green space, planted 400000 seedlings, and recovered 1.1 million square meters of estuarine wetlands, significantly improving the appearance of the reservoir area and becoming a new destination for local citizens to relax during holidays.
“In the next step, we will give full play to the ecological advantages of the Shilianghe Reservoir to turn it into a dividend for rural revitalization and development. We will continue to work together with townships to protect water better, making the sky bluer and the water greener,” said Zhang Shengwen, Deputy Director of Shilianghe Reservoir Administration in Lianyungang City.
Various regions throughout the province have innovated mechanisms to create samples of "one place, one policy" for river and lake governance.
At the junction of Tongshan District in Xuzhou and Xiaoxian County in Anhui, the main stream of the Old Yellow River crosses the two provinces. A few years ago, frequent reports were heard in terms of unauthorized occupation of water and shorelines, destruction of river and lake engineering facilities, and illegal water intake and pollution discharge.
In order to solve the problem of river and lake governance in the inter-provincial boundary areas, the governments on both sides have signed a cooperation agreement on cross provincial river joint governance by carrying out joint inspections, joint cleaning, joint governance, joint law enforcement, and joint monitoring on a regular basis, which has made the Yellow River an ecological river with clear water and green banks and also a friendship river between the two regions.
“We have strengthened the inspection of river channels and resolutely eliminated the problem of direct discharge. We are also cracking down on and rectifying agricultural non-point source pollution. Now, the water quality has been greatly improved through our testing,” said Zheng Yijun, Director of the River Chief Office in Tongshan District, Xuzhou City.
In recent years, Jiangsu has fully established the river chief and lake chief system. Nowadays, 57000 river leaders have taken on the responsibility of water management and have become the main force for river and lake management and protection in Jiangsu.
