Clear water and clear waves reflect the way of water governance in China - Observation of China's ecological civilization practice | Water quality | China

On June 6th, Beijing, Xinhua News Agency reported that China has achieved a series of significant achievements in water management practices, from the first full water supply of the Beijing Hangzhou Grand Canal in a century, the first multiple water systems in North China to be connected to the sea in decades, and the entire Yangtze and Yellow River main streams reaching Class II water quality. From the return of the peach blossom jellyfish, known as the "water quality monitor," to the reappearance of water bodies in multiple regions.

According to Li Lei, the director of the Institute of Watershed Ecology and Environment at the Beijing Institute of Water Science and Technology, whether it is large-scale ecological restoration and protection of watersheds or the functional improvement of small and micro habitats, they all demonstrate the historic changes that are happening in China's water conservancy industry from different dimensions.

Since entering a new era, China has adhered to the water management concept of "prioritizing water conservation, balancing space, systematic governance, and dual efforts", and written the answer sheet of the era of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature.

The cruise ship sailed past the Canal Business District located in Tongzhou District, Beijing. Shen Jizhong

Strengthening top-level design and polishing the civilized background

The spatiotemporal distribution of water resources in China is extremely uneven, with frequent occurrences of water and drought disasters. It is one of the countries in the world with the most complex water conditions, the most difficult river management, and the most arduous water management tasks. The continuous optimization of river and lake governance cannot be achieved without innovative ideas and guaranteed mechanisms.

In 2012, the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China included the construction of ecological civilization in the overall layout of the "Five in One" socialist cause with Chinese characteristics, and for the first time, "Beautiful China" was regarded as the grand goal of ecological civilization construction.

In 2017, the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China adopted the Constitution of the CPC, emphasizing once again "enhancing the awareness that green waters and green mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains"; In 2018, ecological civilization was officially written into the Constitution, achieving a high degree of unity among the Party's propositions, national will, and people's will.

In June 2017, the river chief system was incorporated into the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law. Today, there are over 1.2 million people living in various levels of rivers and lakes in China, and each river and lake is guarded by people.

The Yellow River Protection Law implemented in April this year, along with the previously promulgated Yangtze River Protection Law, provides clear legal protection for the two mother rivers of the Chinese nation, becoming a landmark measure to comprehensively promote the legalization of the national "river strategy".

To make good use of water resources, China is striving to improve its water-saving system and policies, strengthen rigid constraints on water resources, curb unreasonable water demand, and promote the transformation of water use from extensive and inefficient to economical and intensive.

Zhang Song, Deputy Director of the River Chief System Work Department of the Beijing Municipal Water Bureau, said that more and more rivers and lakes are shining with new vitality. In recent years, more than 80 springs have returned to Beijing, and in 2021, all five major rivers have reappeared as "flowing rivers" and connected to the sea for the first time in 26 years. The groundwater level in the Beijing Plain area has risen by 9.79 meters for six consecutive years.

In April this year, the Beijing Hangzhou Grand Canal was once again fully open to water. "The connection of the Beijing Hangzhou Grand Canal not only has ecological significance, but also has cultural significance," said Wan Jinhong, a senior engineer at the China Academy of Water Resources and Hydropower Sciences. The Grand Canal has been a highly functional river in history, serving as a channel for material circulation, cultural transmission, and an important carrier for building biodiversity.

On April 8th, the black faced spoonbill rested in the wetlands at the mouth of the Minjiang River in Fujian Province. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Mei Yongcun

Reduce pollution emissions and safeguard the health of rivers and lakes

Although it has been half a year, Guo Wei, the director of the laboratory at the Beijing Hydrological Station, still cannot conceal the excitement of discovering peach blossom jellyfish in Huairou Reservoir. "This is a rare reappearance of peach blossom jellyfish after disappearing in Beijing for over 20 years."

According to Guo Wei, peach blossom jellyfish are truly "water quality inspectors" with extremely high requirements for the water environment. The water bodies suitable for their survival must be clean and harmless.

In recent years, the beautiful figure of peach blossom jellyfish has frequently appeared in multiple cities such as Wuzhishan in Hainan, Dalian in Liaoning, and Chengdu in Sichuan, becoming a strong evidence of the water quality leap in various regions.

As one of the most direct measures to improve water quality, reducing pollution emissions has always been an important lever for China's water environment governance. China has implemented the action plan for rectifying the discharge outlets of the Yangtze River into the river, completing over 90% of the task of tracing the source of the discharge outlets in the Yangtze River and Bohai Sea, promoting the resolution of more than 20000 problems of direct and disorderly discharge of sewage, and completing the inspection of discharge outlets in 6 provinces and 30 cities in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River and the Fen River basin.

In 2022, the main stream of the Yellow River reached Class II water quality for the first time, and the main stream of the Yangtze River reached Class II water quality for three consecutive years. The chemical oxygen demand and total ammonia nitrogen emissions decreased by 3.7% and 5.5% respectively year-on-year. The Yellow River has been flowing continuously for 23 consecutive years, the the Taihu Lake Lake has achieved the goal of ensuring the safety of drinking water and preventing the occurrence of black and odorous water in large areas for 14 consecutive years, and the East Juyan Sea of the Heihe River has not dried up for 18 consecutive years.

China's water environment governance is still being continuously promoted and deepened. This year, 800 rural black and odorous water bodies will be renovated. It is expected that by 2025, a large area of black and odorous water bodies in rural areas will also be basically eliminated.

Recalling Beijing 20 years ago, Li Lei said that many rivers at that time had problems of pollution and flow interruption, and there were also serious eutrophication problems in the summer. "Nowadays, there are fewer rivers that are cut off, and the improvement of water ecological environment is visible to the naked eye."

This is a scene taken on May 13th at the Jianzha section of the upper reaches of the Yellow River. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Hongxiang

Riding the technology express to unleash ecological dividends

With the improvement of water quality, China's water control work is gradually shifting from pollution control to ecological governance, and the transformation of small and micro habitats has created more possibilities for improving the level of biodiversity protection.

In Beijing, the difficult to absorb river silt is made into hollow "fish nest bricks" and laid on the riverbed. Underwater monitoring equipment has observed that many fish will burrow into the bricks to rest at night.

Zhang Lei, Senior Engineer at the Urban Water Ecological Environment Research Institute of Beijing Institute of Water Science and Technology, said, "This exploration solves the problem of resource utilization of river sediment and provides a hiding place for fish in urban rivers."

Biodiversity is an important indicator for water ecological monitoring. Beijing has released technical specifications for the investigation of aquatic animals and plants, including 10 types of organisms such as phytoplankton, zooplankton, fish, birds, and benthic animals.

According to Liu Bo, the head of the Water Ecological Monitoring and Evaluation Department at the Beijing Hydrological Station, in the past, bird observation mainly relied on manual monitoring, which was time-consuming, laborious, and overly dependent on expert experience. The observation effect was also constrained by natural conditions such as weather and light. "This prompted us to have the idea of applying 'facial recognition' to 'bird face recognition'," he said.

This year, the Beijing water management system has set up 12 new stations for the artificial intelligence identification and monitoring equipment of river and lake birds. On the first day of operation, the Shahe Reservoir monitoring station identified over 50 species of birds. Last year, the Guanting Reservoir also successfully monitored images of the black faced spoonbill, a nationally protected animal.

The continuous improvement of water ecological monitoring technology is just a microcosm of China's efforts to build smart water management. In recent years, China has widely used technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, and cloud computing to assist in water ecological protection and improve the efficiency of water resource utilization.

China, with 6% of the world's freshwater resources, ensures water use for nearly 20% of the world's population and creates over 18% of the world's total economic output. In 2022, the water consumption per 10000 yuan of China's gross domestic product and per 10000 yuan of industrial added value decreased by 33.4% and 50.3% respectively compared to 2015.

"From 'hoping for food and clothing' to 'hoping for environmental protection', from 'seeking survival' to 'seeking ecology', the people's demand for a beautiful ecological environment is even more hopeful," said Li Lei.

When it comes to expectations for the future water environment, Guo Wei said that there are 85 species of wild fish recorded in literature in Beijing's history, including some migratory fish such as eel, seahorse, and anchovy. Due to various reasons, the number of fish species in Beijing once dropped to around 40. With the improvement of aquatic ecology in recent years, the number of fish is gradually recovering.

"Perhaps in the near future, the disappearing fish will return to the rivers of Beijing. We can see the thorny seahorse in the Yuyuan Lake, which is also a kind of happiness," he said.