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Yulin, Shaanxi Province, was recently exposed to illegal golf courses in desertified areas and has been operating for more than a decade without any approval procedures. In this regard, Yulin City issued a circular on September 12, saying that it attaches great importance to it, and has set up a joint investigation team composed of the Municipal Development and Reform Commission, the Municipal Public Security Bureau, the Municipal Resource Planning Bureau and other relevant departments and the Yuyang District Government to conduct a thorough investigation, and the investigation is ongoing.
The stadium involved is located in a project called "Green Taosa - Desert Eco-City" in Yulin Shadi Forest Park, covering an area of nearly 3,000 acres. Aerial footage shows that the stadium is beautifully landscaped and the lawn is newly trimmed. Battery trucks pull customers between different greens, and many people are swinging.
According to the staff, the stadium implements a reservation and membership system, and the minimum membership card is 320,000 yuan. Although the price is not cheap, there are many people who come to play every day, ranging from 70 or 80 to nearly 200. Since the course is spread among the many sand dunes and the fairways are undulating, many customers have commented that playing here is more challenging than the average golf course. But for the same reason, in order to guarantee the growth of the lawn, the court uses a lot of water, watering for about two hours every night.
According to public information, the operator of the stadium "Yulin Desert Green Taosa City Sports Club Co., Ltd." was established in 2010 with a registered capital of 20 million yuan, and its business scope includes sports, ball games, catering and accommodation. The reporter compared the satellite images of the second and third land surveys and found that before the construction of the course, the land attribute was "shrub woodland", and only 18 fairways covered an area of 2,960 acres. The stadium has been promoted on social platforms as a tourist attraction, mainly focusing on "oases in the desert", but it has also appeared in public media reports for problems such as water grabbing and environmental pollution with surrounding residents.
After arousing attention, the staff of the Yulin Municipal Development and Reform Commission and the Yulin Municipal Natural Resources and Planning Bureau told reporters that the construction of the stadium had not fulfilled the project approval procedures and was a completely illegal project. According to staff of the Yuyang District Natural Resources Bureau and Planning Bureau, the stadium has been fined many times in recent years, with a cumulative fine of more than 2 million yuan, but it has been repeatedly fined, and after each fine, it will be closed for a few days and then continue to operate.
This incident has once again aroused public attention on issues such as desertification area control and illegal construction of golf courses.
Yulin City is located in the northern part of Shaanxi, the junction of the Maowusu Sandy Land and the Loess Plateau, with an annual precipitation of only about 400 mm, which is a typical desertification and desertification area. In recent years, the management of the Maowusu Sandy Land has been effective, but it is obviously a drop in the bucket to meet the construction of a green golf course.
The course is a 36-hole international standard golf course. According to professional estimates, the construction of such a stadium in the arsenic sandstone area of the western plateau is expected to consume 5 million tons of water per year, which is equivalent to a giant "pumping machine". In desert areas, due to the special geological structure, the water that is watered will be quickly lost. In order to ensure that the lawn can grow naturally, more water is needed. This begs the question, where does the water come from in a region as severely water-scarce as sand.
According to nearby villagers, the water used in the stadium in question came from groundwater from a nearby coal mine. In fact, the local villagers' water for farming and domestic life also comes from this groundwater. Since the start of construction of the stadium, the local groundwater level has decreased, wells have been dug deeper, cultivated land has been watered more frequently, and specially planted windbreak and sand fixing vegetation is more likely to wither due to water shortage. In addition, the green grass of the stadium relies on a large number of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to "keep fresh", which has formed a certain pollution of water and soil. All these have further deteriorated the already fragile ecological environment of the local area.
In addition, the reporter's investigation found that the golf course involved was not approved, and there was another reason. As early as 2004, in response to the crazy construction of golf courses in various places, the General Office of the State Council issued a special notice prohibiting the approval of new golf courses. But the huge dividends that such projects may bring make many people take risks. In the name of ecological parks, greening projects or sports parks, it is not uncommon to start building golf courses in reality. The stadium exposed this time belongs to the investment attraction project of the local sand ecological park.
According to incomplete statistics, more than 400 golf courses have been illegally built in recent years, of which 259 have been banned in law enforcement and rectification. So, what do you do next? How to deter violators and prevent repeated prohibitions?
Wang Canfa, director of the Institute of Environmental Resources of China University of Political Science and Law, believes that due to the terrain, coverage, greening and other reasons, the impact of the construction and operation of golf courses on the local ecological environment is multi-faceted and multi-level, the core of which is the problem of water waste, soil erosion and environmental pollution. Therefore, the construction of golf courses should comply with the requirements of relevant laws and regulations. The illegal construction incident in Yulin occurred in the context of the State Council's explicit prohibition, and the repeated fines were repeated, the reasons behind it are worth pondering, and the relevant responsibilities are worth pursuing. Not only should parties be held accountable, but why has regulation stopped at fines for so many years? Relevant responsible persons such as those who cover up and conceal should also be seriously held accountable.
Wang Canfa said that as the work of the joint investigation team gradually unfolds and deepens, he believes that the facts and details of the violations of laws and regulations in this matter will gradually be clarified and made public, and this opportunity should be taken to seriously analyze and evaluate the loopholes exposed therein, and study and take effective measures to fill in and amend them, so as to achieve the prohibition of orders and actions, and the implementation of words and the "cage" of the rule of law.
(Check out the news Knews editors: Jin Mei, Chen Yuhui, Ruan Li)