Once, seven or eight kilometers downstream of the Zhanghe Gorge National Wetland Park in Anyang, Henan, the riverbed was flat and dotted with sand and gravel, and tourists often fished and barbecued on the shore.
That calm is no longer there. At the end of 2020, near the Zhanghe River Weir Gate and Xujiatan Bridge, excavators are like long dragons, digging the river channel, and in just a few months, the deepest channel of several dug rivers is more than 10 meters. Nearby villagers said that while the river channel was being dug, muck trucks were constantly pulling sand and gravel to the nearby sand and gravel yard for sale.
Villagers have reported the situation to the Zhanghe Upper Reaches Management Bureau, the Yindu District Water Conservancy Bureau of Anyang City and other departments, and the reply they received is that "this section of the river is undergoing 'ecological restoration'", and the average excavation depth of the river is 1.5 meters.
In mid-June 2021, the roar of construction machines came to an abrupt halt, as did excavators and muck trucks all over the river. At the end of June, the reporter of the People's Daily "People's Direct Attack" did not see any signs of the completion of the "ecological restoration" at the scene. On August 19, villagers said that since the flood season last month, the Zhanghe River has risen a lot of water and has not resumed work.
"Is this ecological restoration, or is it digging sand in disguise in the name?" The villagers are suspicious.
A river that is beyond recognition
It all started with the torrential rain 5 years ago.
On July 19, 2016, heavy rainfall hit the city of Anyang, affecting 888,600 people and displacing 192,700 people. Anyang Daily's June 2021 report quoted a village secretary near the river as saying that before the "7.19" exceptionally heavy rainstorm, the scenery on both sides of the Zhanghe River was pleasant, and now the rocks and gravel brought by the heavy rain have not been thoroughly cleaned up, coupled with the emergence of illegal sand mining, the original ecology of the Zhanghe River has been damaged.
Wang Xingwang, deputy director of the Yindu District Water Conservancy Bureau in Anyang City, said that in recent years, the price of sand and gravel has risen, the local illegal mining situation is serious, and the river has been dug out of a number of large pits, with a depth of more than ten meters, affecting the safety of flooding. ”
Wang Xingwang said that the project was led by the Zhanghe Upper Reaches Management Bureau, and after the implementation plan was approved by the Haihe Water Conservancy Committee of the Ministry of Water Resources, the Zhanghe Upper Reaches Management Bureau was entrusted to the local government for implementation, and the local government then entrusted the Water Conservancy Bureau to organize the auction. In June 2020, the Zhanghe Upper Reaches Management Bureau approved the "Implementation Plan for the Ecological Restoration of the Zhanghe Zhanggetai to Guantai Section", which treated the 4.9 km upstream river as an experimental section for comprehensive treatment, mainly including the return of the river, the leveling of the bank slope and the greening of the shore beach.
In late June 2021, from the downstream of the Zhanghe Gorge Wetland Park to the west, the reporter saw several kilometers of exposed riverbeds full of holes. From a high place, the dried up river channel is like a knife and axe, like a series of "scars" across the canyon. The wheel marks in the channel are clearly visible.
The dry Zhanghe River is like a "scar" between the canyons. People's Daily Photo by Huang Yu
Nearby villagers recall that since the end of October 2020, several excavators began to operate in the river, and then more and more vehicles, the roar of the machines was incessant, and then the muck truck was like a long snake, pulling the load of sand and gravel out of the mountain.
"At first we didn't know what they were doing, we didn't know where they were sending the sand and gravel, and everyone didn't care." Later, the villagers felt that something was wrong, and the construction team dug the river wider and wider, digging deeper and deeper, reaching more than 10 meters at the deepest point.
"Originally, the canyon was pristine, and the river should not be dug so deep, right?" The villagers were puzzled.
Near the broken weir gate, the reporter used a tape measure to measure the channel of the river that was dug, and the excavation depth was about one or two meters shallow, and the depth reached more than 10 meters.
For the specific conditions such as the depth and width of the river construction, Wang Xingwang said that he "did not know", and the supervision unit of the project was the Zhanghe Upper Reaches Management Bureau.
A director surnamed Guo of the Water Administration Department of the Zhanghe Upper Reaches Management Bureau said that the Zhanghe Upper Reaches Management Bureau was mainly responsible for reviewing and approving the "Implementation Plan for the Ecological Restoration of the Zhanghe Zhanggetai to Guantai Section", and entrusted a third party to supervise the project, but refused to disclose the specific company name.
On July 19, 2021, the Zhanghe Upper Reaches Administration said in its reply to the open government information application that according to the implementation of the project, the average excavation depth of the river channel is about 1.5 meters, and the project will not have a big impact on the aquatic plants in the implementation section of the river.
Sand mining in disguise?
"Nominally 'dredging of the river', we are mining sand and gravel." Li Wengang, a villager in Nanyangcheng Village near the Zhanghe River, admitted that he and 32 other people had received a "river dredging" project in the Zhanghe River from the village committee in 2019.
Li Wengang provided a receipt signed on July 19 of that year, with the signatures and handprints of the village accountant and cashier, showing that he had received "ten thousand yuan in contract fees for dredging the outer river beach" from Li Wengang and others.
The river range they contracted began at 100 meters under the NanyangCheng Bridge and extended more than 200 meters to the south, with a width of about 20 meters.
Li Wengang recalled that their sand mining began in April 2020. It usually starts at 12:00 p.m. and ends at 6:00 a.m. Unlike the large-scale operation of excavators and muck trucks in the later "ecological restoration" project, Li Wengang and the villagers used two small forklifts with a load of 2 tons and more than 30 tricycles, each of which can hold about 7 tons of sand and gravel.
"Whoever has time digs." Li Wengang said that everyone had been digging back and forth for two months, and when they heard that the relevant departments were investigating, everyone stopped. Since then, 13 villagers in Nanyangcheng Village have been detained. Lin Lifang's son is one of the detainees. She still has her son's detention notice on suspicion of illegal mining on her phone.
According to a tweet from the WeChat public account of the Yindu Branch of the Anyang Municipal Public Security Bureau, the arrested villagers were involved in the "illegal sand mining case in the Zhanghe River.".
The Interpretation of several issues concerning the application of law in the Handling of Criminal Cases of Illegal Mining and Destructive Mining jointly issued by the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Supreme People's Court in 2016 stated that those who fail to obtain relevant permits in accordance with relevant provisions and have serious sand mining within the scope of river management shall be convicted and punished for the crime of illegal mining.
"The village agreed to dig the sand, otherwise he would dare to do it." Lin Lifang regretted that she had not stopped it. What puzzled her even more was that the same sand digging, why was her son and villagers arrested, but the people who later implemented the "ecological restoration" project were good?
Li Wengang was glad to quit this "business" earlier. During the investigation of the case, he was asked to write down the amount of sand and gravel pulled, "I can't remember exactly how many cars were pulled, so I wrote about how much money." ”
Since the beginning of sand mining, the nearby sand and gravel yard has found Li Wengang and others to buy sand and gravel raw materials at a price of about 24 yuan to 27 yuan per ton. Li Wengang calculated the account, they removed the resource fee of 10 yuan per car and the fuel money of more than 20 yuan per car, and a car can earn 120 to 130 yuan.
The sand and gravel yard about 15 miles from Nanyang Chengqiao is their main location for selling sand and gravel. "We all call it Xiao Yong Factory." Li Wengang said they did not know the specific names of the factory, and after the 13 villagers were arrested, he deleted all the contact information of the "Xiaoyong Factory".
At about 19:00 on June 24, the reporter saw that the "Xiaoyong Factory" was surrounded by a circle of blue iron sheets, two muck trucks were parked outside the door, the gate was half open, there was no sign hanging in front of the door, and there was sand and gravel piled up in the field.
Muck trucks lined up to transport the sand and gravel out. Courtesy of respondents
"The sand and gravel excavated by the 'ecological project' will also be sent here." From March to May, Zhang Jinhe and others, who run a rafting project near the Zhanghe River, repeatedly drove through the muck trucks in the Zhanghe River.
"Most of the muck trucks are transported to coal washing plants seven or eight kilometers away." Zhang Jinhe's sister, Zhang Jinfang, recalled that the coal washing plant was located in Guantai Town, Ci County, Hebei Province, and the company was called Tianzhao Coal Washing Co., Ltd., but there was no signboard, and she also learned through map positioning and inquiries from nearby villagers.
According to the national enterprise credit information publicity system, the business scope of the enterprise is coal washing and dressing; coal, coke, steel, iron concentrate, pig iron, refractory materials, industrial and mining accessories wholesale and retail.
Zhang Jinfang said that the company's Sun Yanyong had been to the construction site. Sun Yanyong told reporters that he had not purchased the sand and gravel of the Zhanghe River. After further questioning, the other party also said that its company was a subsidiary of Henan Hengyu Water Conservancy Engineering Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Hengyu Company), which was doing the project of Hengyu Company, and the project was obtained through formal auction procedures.
Looming village cadres
On June 23, the reporter saw on the notice board erected on the side of the river near Nanyang Chengcun that the name of the project was "the total length of the ecological restoration and treatment project of the Section from the Zhanghe Ecological Restoration and Governance Xiaoyuefeng Barrage to the Nanyang Chengqiao River Section is 4.878 kilometers", and the notification time is October 1, 2020.
The notice board said that the project was auctioned by the Yindu District Water Conservancy Bureau on September 29, 2020. The supervision unit is the Zhanghe Upper Reaches Management Bureau of the Maritime Commission, the supervision unit is the Yindu District Water Conservancy Bureau, and the public security unit is the Cixian Public Security Bureau.
The project was won by Hengyu Company. The company was established in 2004, the scope of business for water conservancy and hydropower engineering construction and installation (voucher operation). The largest shareholder of the company is Xinyang Guoxin Development Group Co., Ltd., which is 100% owned by xinyang municipal finance bureau.
A contract signed by the Anyang Yindu District Water Conservancy Bureau and Hengyu Company obtained by the reporter shows that the ecological restoration and treatment project of the upper reaches of the Zhanghe Xiaoyuefeng Barrage to the Nanyang Chengqiao Bridge was implemented by the Yindu District Water Conservancy Bureau (the contractor) of Anyang City, and the Zhanghe Xiaoyuefeng Barrage (river pile number 33+788) was carried out by Henan Ruide Auction Co., Ltd. through public auction to Nanyang Chengqiao (river pile number 38+). 666) About 322,500 cubic meters of abandoned materials for the ecological restoration project of the 4.878 km river section were transferred to Henan Hengyu Water Conservancy Engineering Co., Ltd. (contractor). The auction price was 9.675 million yuan.
The contract signed by the Yindu District Water Conservancy Bureau of Anyang City and Hengyu Company. Courtesy of respondents
The director surnamed Guo said that the discarded material mainly refers to the sand and gravel in the river, the auction of discarded materials is the behavior of the Yindu District Government, the Zhanghe Upper Reaches Management Bureau does not participate in the specific implementation of the plan, and the Hengyu Company, which won the bid, can transport the sand and gravel to the qualified sand and gravel yard for processing, "People have paid money to the government, and things are people's." ”
Wang Xingwang also said that the discarded materials are disposed of by the winning company itself, and who is responsible for the scene is the company's behavior and cannot interfere, "Their company will do it in accordance with the implementation plan." ”
However, the staff of Hengyu Company said that its company worked on the site as a construction unit, transporting sand and gravel to a designated location for stacking according to the requirements of the owner unit, and now the sand and gravel is managed by the state, and they cannot handle it privately.
For the claim of "sand mining in disguise", Wang Xingwang denied it, and said that the things handled by Hengyu Company included both silt, sand, pebbles, branches, etc., which belonged to the disposal of discarded materials, not sand mining.
The "Guiding Opinions of the Ministry of Water Resources on the Management of River Sand Mining" clearly points out that the sand and gravel produced by the dredging of rivers, waterways and water-related projects in accordance with the law shall generally not be sold in the market, and if it is really necessary to operate and sell, it shall be managed according to the commercial sand mining management, and the local people's government at or above the county level shall organize and operate and manage it in a unified manner.
A number of villagers revealed that the actual beneficiary of this "ecological restoration" project is Feng Guangtao, secretary of the party branch of Dongjishan Village. "He borrowed the company's qualifications to win the project."
Villagers said that Feng Guangtao had appeared at the construction site, and that the clerk, Feng Chengqi, had been directing the construction site for a long time, and that he had told many villagers that the project was auctioned by Feng Guangtao.
A police registration form at the Duli Police Station of the Yindu Branch of Anyang City, which the reporter possessed, showed: "The police station received an alarm that some people had dug the river and destroyed the ecology. After the police were dispatched, the person in charge of the other side, Feng Chengqi, said that Feng Guangtao had photographed the Zhanghe River maintenance project, which had the consent and contract of the Yindu District and the Maritime Commission department. I advised both sides to coordinate the handling or through the coordination of the government, and Feng Chengqi stopped the construction. For several days in a row, the reporter called Feng Chengqi many times, and his mobile phone was turned off.
In the registration form of the police at the reception, Feng Chengqi said that Feng Guangtao photographed the zhanghe river maintenance project. Courtesy of respondents
According to media reports, Feng Guangtao was engaged in the coal transport business, set up a coal washing plant and a transport fleet, and then handed over the enterprise to others to take care of, and he returned to the village as a village cadre.
For the question of participating in the "ecological restoration" project, Feng Guangtao denied it and immediately hung up the phone; the relevant person in charge of the office of the Yindu District Water Conservancy Bureau immediately hung up the phone after hearing about it.
Repairs that have not yet been completed
Since the start of the "ecological restoration" project, Zhang Jinhe's family and nearby villagers have often haunted the river channel in an attempt to stop the construction.
In December 2020, the duli town government in Yindu District demolished the rafting project on the Zhangjin River and the buildings in the river channel because it was "without the consent of the Zhanghe Upper Reaches Administration.".
Comparison before and after the construction of the section of the river near the broken weir gate of the Zhanghe River. Courtesy of respondents
The rafting project operated by ZhangjinHe is about six or seven kilometers away from the Zhanghe Gorge National Wetland Park in Anyang, Henan. Zhanghe Gorge National Wetland Park has a total area of 646.38 hectares, a total length of 18 kilometers, and a wetland rate of 35.48%, which is an important central passage for the migration of migratory birds in "East Asia-Australasia", and there are black storks, golden eagles and other national key protected wild animals in the park.
The Measures for the Management of National Wetland Parks make it clear that, unless otherwise provided by the state, sand dredging and mining are prohibited in the national wetland park.
Near Zhang Getai in the wetland park, the reporter found a sand pit about one or two meters deep and more than ten meters long, and the excavation marks in the pit were obvious. Nearby villagers said the sand pit appeared around this spring.
On July 14, the reporter called the park management service telephone in this regard, and the staff said that he did not know that there were gravel pits in the park, which may have been left over from previous construction. When asked if anyone had secretly dug river sand in the park, the other party said, "We are a national wetland park and will not let them dig it; there are people patrolling the park every day, and the rangers have not reported this situation."
A large pit in the Zhanghe Gorge National Wetland Park. People's Daily Photo by Huang Yu
Yuan Xingzhong, a member of the National Wetland Science and Technology Committee and executive director of the China Wetland Conservation Association, said that the premise of ecological restoration of rivers is that there are some problems in rivers, such as deterioration of water quality, damage to water ecosystems, man-made destruction of river banks, decline of river biodiversity and reduced ecological service functions of rivers.
In Yuan Xingzhong's view, digging so deep into the river channel not only destroys the river benthic system, but also destroys the undercurrent layer under the riverbed. He believes that at present, domestic river restoration is still in the process of changing from the pollution control stage of blackening and deodorization to ecosystem restoration, and scientific guidance and technical support are urgently needed for the improvement of river biodiversity and the comprehensive optimization of ecosystem service functions.
According to the contract signed by the Yindu District Water Conservancy Bureau of Anyang City and Hengyu Company, the construction period of the project is from October 20, 2020 to June 20, 2021.
The director of the water affairs department of the Zhanghe Upper Reaches Management Bureau, Guo surnamed Guo, confirmed on July 21 that at present, there are still about 5% of the tail work left for the ecological restoration project, and the overall acceptance has not yet been organized.
During the reporter's field visit at the end of June, in the nearly 5-kilometer "ecological restoration" river channel, between the various large pits, you can occasionally see a beach of turquoise water, and the bottom of the river is full of sand and gravel. "That's called the original ecology, and it's what the Zhanghe River should have looked like." Looking at the unrecognizable river channel, the villagers said the most about "original ecology".
(Li Wengang and Lin Lifang are pseudonyms in the text)
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