Draw an Ecological Scroll of Clear Water and Green Banks (High Quality Development Research Tour)
The blue leaves touch the sky, stretching endlessly, and the lotus sways in the wind. Walking slowly around the lake, water birds adorn it, occasionally flapping their wings and taking off.
This is the Chonghu International Important Wetland in Gong'an County, Jingzhou City, Hubei Province. It is bordered to the north by the Jingjiang section of the Yangtze River, which has a winding path, and to the south by the Dongting Lake basin, where water systems intersect. In the past, Chonghu Lake was extensively fenced and farmed by fishermen, with excessive feed input into the lake, resulting in poor water quality.
Since 2014, the Chonghu Lake area has fully implemented the policy of returning fishing to wetlands. After nearly 10 years of management, Chonghu Lake currently has 430 species of aquatic plants and 158 species of birds; The number of critically endangered species, the blue headed diving duck, has increased from 4 to 157.
Keeping in mind the instructions and moving towards greenery, Hubei adheres to a systematic concept and coordinated approach, starting from solving prominent ecological and environmental problems in the Yangtze River, and comprehensively and systematically promotes the governance and restoration of the Yangtze River's ecological environment.
"Hubei is the province with the longest runoff mileage of the Yangtze River, as well as the important water source area of the Three Gorges Project reservoir and the South to North Water Diversion Middle Line Project. It shoulders the major responsibility of 'one river flows clean water to the east and one reservoir delivers clean water to the north'. Zhou Shuihua, Deputy Director of the Hubei Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment, said that the water quality in the northern section of the Yangtze River has remained at Class II for four consecutive years, and the total phosphorus concentration in the exit section has decreased by 30.3% compared to 2016. The water quality of the Danjiangkou Reservoir has remained stable at Class II or above for years.".
The mountains in Huanglongguan Village, Baokang County, Xiangyang City are lush and picturesque. Baokang County is located in the Qinba Mountains, with abundant phosphate mineral resources. Huanglongguan Village was once a famous phosphate mining village, with "dozens of large and small mines, and the deepest mine is nearly a hundred meters." Zhang Zuliang, the village party secretary, said that with mining, the geological environment in the mining area has deteriorated, with exposed rocks and deformed mountains, and the ecological environment urgently needs to be restored.
Backfilling mining pits, eliminating hazardous rock masses, and covering with soil to plant greenery... In recent years, the mining area has built wooden houses and homestays on the mountaintop, transforming the village that was once plagued by the "gray burden" into a 3A level scenic area. "During this year's May Day holiday, the scenic area received more than 20000 tourists and generated tourism revenue of over 5 million yuan," said Zhang Zuliang.
In recent years, Xiangyang City has carried out ecological restoration of abandoned open-pit mines on both sides of the Yangtze River main and tributaries, and formulated a plan for one mine, one policy. Wang Heng, Director of the Natural Resources and Planning Bureau of Xiangyang City, introduced that through natural restoration, transformation and utilization, and engineering restoration, it is expected to complete the ecological restoration task of about 333 hectares of historical legacy mines in the city within 3 years.
Entering the Yichang New Materials Industrial Park of Xingfa Group, the landscape belt is lined with green trees and full of vitality. Five years ago, due to environmental pollution, Xingfa Group received over a hundred related complaints in a year; On the 232 kilometer coastline of the Yichang section of the Yangtze River, there are over 130 chemical enterprises like Xingfa, located less than a hundred meters away from the Yangtze River.
Faced with pollution, Yichang has made a resolute effort to promote the "closure, renovation, and relocation" of chemical enterprises within a range of 1 to 15 kilometers along the river, rectify docks along the river, and ban illegal sand mining sites. In 2022, the Yichang Yangtze River shoreline renovation and restoration project was fully completed, and the revitalized Yangtze River shoreline naturally connected with the Binjiang Park, forming a 25 kilometer long urban riverside green corridor.
Ecological restoration is a long-term achievement. Hubei Province has issued a plan, proposing to complete the "closure, renovation, and relocation" of the remaining 39 chemical enterprises along the Yangtze River by the end of 2025, complete afforestation and greening of 1.2 million mu, and improve forest quality by 5.2 million mu, striving to continuously improve the ecological environment and water ecological functions of the Yangtze River.
In the future, Hubei Province will persistently fight the battle against pollution prevention and control, build a strong ecological barrier in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and make the land of Jingchu bluer in sky, greener in mountains, and clearer in water.
