City moves to protect China's 'mother river'

Located on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Chongqing is introducing far-reaching management measures to protect the waterway in response to a conservation law that took effect on March 1.

In February, local lawmakers said the southwestern municipality would implement the "most stringent" water resource management system by establishing a negative list approach and an early warning system for the carrying capacity of water resources.

The Yangtze, the world's third-longest river, flows for 6,300 kilometers from glaciers in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau through Chongqing, Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, and Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province, before reaching the East China Sea at Shanghai.

The river has fed people living along its banks with a wealth of natural resources for thousands of years. One of the cradles of Chinese civilization, it is known as the "mother river", and more than 400 million people get their drinking water from it.

Hailed as a major economic engine, the Yangtze River Economic Belt, comprising nine provinces and two municipalities, accounts for more than 40 percent of the country's population and GDP.

However, economic development has resulted in conflict between progress and protection as environmental issues, such as overfishing, water pollution and soil erosion, have affected the river and residents.

As roughly 691 km of the river runs through Chongqing, the city has concentrated on environmental restoration and protection while avoiding large-scale development, especially after President Xi Jinping's inspection tour of the city in January 2016.

During the tour, Xi said the Yangtze's environmental quality "can only be allowed to improve and can never be allowed to deteriorate".

He also urged the municipality to become a "pleasant place with clear water and green mountains".

The Chongqing authorities quickly started improvement work along the Yangtze and its tributary, the Jialing River, by restoring waterfronts, optimizing riverside functions, creating water-friendly spaces and protecting historical and cultural resources.

To strengthen environmental protection, Chongqing has built an "ecological red line" around 2.04 million hectares of land.

Early last year, the State Council, China's Cabinet, approved the red zones－covering nature reserves, scenic areas, forest parks, geological parks and wetland－for 15 provincial-level regions, saying they can be developed as long as their environmental functions are not harmed.

To restore the water quality, Chongqing's environmental authorities banned construction of new chemical plants within 1 km of the Yangtze and its major branches, while new industrial parks must not be sited within 5 km of the waterway.

Meanwhile, to reduce water pollution and soil erosion on the upper reaches of the river, the municipality is looking at ways of solving drainage problems.

Yuelai New City in Chongqing's Liangjiang New Area, a national development zone, is one of 16"sponge cities" taking part in a program to test climate-resilient urban designs. To prevent flooding, these cities store rainwater and release it during periods of drought or for irrigation and cleaning purposes.

These clean water initiatives are already showing results. By the end of last year, the water quality of the Chongqing section of the Yangtze was rated as "good" according to national standards, said Xin Shijie, director of the Chongqing Ecology and Environment Bureau.

On Jan 1, a 10-year fishing ban took effect in all key waters of the Yangtze to help the country's longest waterway recover from dwindling aquatic resources and degraded biodiversity.

Encouraged and supported by all levels of government, many former fishermen have become fishing resources protection volunteers on the river.

For example, Cheng Yongbin, who was born and raised by the water in the city's Jiangjin district, started fishing when he was a teenager.

"In the 1980s, we used to catch 10 to 15 kilograms of fish with one net, but later it became more and more difficult－sometimes we only got 1 kilo a day－because some people used illegal methods, such as electro-fishing," the 52-year-old said.

He added that he now uses a boat to patrol the water every day to safeguard the fish population.

Chongqing has also explored new ways to use law enforcement to protect the ecosystem.

In 2018, the Yangtze River Ecology Prosecutors Office was set up at the No 2 Branch of Chongqing Municipal Procuratorate to better enforce the law against perpetrators of environmental crimes.

In the future, Chongqing will introduce a 10-year program to plant 210,000 hectares of forests along the Yangtze and its branches to strengthen construction of an ecological barrier on the upper reaches.

By 2030, about 60 percent of the area around the river within the municipality will be covered with trees, compared with 49.2 percent last year, according to the Chongqing Forestry Bureau.