Source: CCTV
CCTV News (Focus Interview): The Yellow River is the mother river of the Chinese nation. Protecting this mother river is a millennium plan related to the great rejuvenation and sustainable development of the Chinese nation. In order to promote the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin on the track of the rule of law, on April 1, 2023, following the Yangtze River Protection Law, the second river basin law in mainland China, the Yellow River Protection Law, came into effect. Now, more than a year after the implementation of the Yellow River Protection Law, the ancient Yellow River is quietly changing.
From the source of the three rivers to the mouth of the sea, the ancient Yellow River is radiating new vitality in the past year.
Li Xiaojing, first-level inspector of the Department of Policies and Regulations of the Ministry of Water Resources: "In the past year since the implementation of the Yellow River Protection Law, the ecological flow of the main stream and major tributaries of the Yellow River has all met the standards, and the ecological flow and ecological water level of key rivers and lakes have reached the standard rate of more than 90%. In order to strengthen the ecological protection and restoration of the Yellow River Basin, the Yellow River Protection Law also stipulates a guarantee system for the ecological flow and ecological water level of important river sections and lakes. ”
On April 1 last year, following the Yangtze River Protection Law, the Yellow River Protection Law, the second major river basin law in mainland China, came into effect, providing a strong guarantee for promoting the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, and also providing a legal weapon for punishing crimes of destroying the mineral resources of the Yellow River.
During his detention, defendant Yang studied the "Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of the Yellow River" and realized the importance of ecological protection of the Yellow River. This is the first case in the country in which the Yellow River Protection Law was applied to punish the crime of destroying the mineral resources of the Yellow River after the implementation of the Yellow River Protection Law.
Li Xin, President of the Criminal Trial Division of the Zhengzhou Railway Transport Court: "River sand is a valuable non-metallic mineral resource in our country, and illegal sand mining has disrupted the dynamics of the Yellow River, exacerbated the siltation of the river, changed the shape of the riverbed, increased the hidden danger of flood control, and also had an irreversible impact on the living environment of aquatic life in the Yellow River. ”
In 2023, as the court with centralized jurisdiction over environmental resources cases in the Yellow River Basin in Henan Province, the Zhengzhou Railway People's Court concluded 784 cases, involving soil and air pollution, compensation for ecological and environmental damage, restoration of damaged ecology, and cracking down on illegal fishing, endangering wild animals and plants, and indiscriminate logging. The Yellow River Protection Law is a basic, comprehensive and overarching law for the Yellow River Basin. In 2021, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the Outline of the Plan for Ecological Protection and High-Quality Development of the Yellow River Basin, which clearly pointed out the shortcomings and weaknesses of the development of the Yellow River Basin. The biggest contradiction in the Yellow River Basin is water shortage, the biggest problem is ecological fragility, the biggest threat is flooding, the biggest shortcoming is insufficient high-quality development, and the biggest weakness is insufficient development of people's livelihood.
Li Xiaojing: "The Yellow River is one of the most difficult rivers in the world to govern, in the history of the two breaches in three years, once in a hundred years to divert the course, the scope of flood disasters as far north as Tianjin, south to Jianghuai, the Yellow River has less water and more sand, and the relationship between water and sediment is not coordinated. The Yellow River has less than one-seventh of the Yangtze River's average water resources for many years, accounting for only 2% of the country's water resources, and water resources are scarce, but the Yellow River basin supports 15% of arable land and 12% of the population. In view of these special problems of the Yellow River, with the river as the link, water as the core, and the river basin as the foundation, a set of legal systems in line with the water conditions and river conditions of the Yellow River Basin should be established, and the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin should be promoted on the track of the rule of law. ”
It is a characteristic of the Yellow River Protection Law to be problem-oriented and to stipulate special institutional measures for various outstanding problems in the Yellow River Basin. For example, water shortages in the Yellow River basin are unavoidable, and water conservation is imperative. Water conservation is also an inevitable choice for the future high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin.
Binzhou is a serious water shortage area, and the Yellow River water is the main source of irrigation in Binzhou. In the fields of several major irrigation areas in Binzhou, farmland irrigation technology has been improved, and the water supply department should grasp the water demand in real time, monitor the progress of water supply, and implement accurate water distribution.
In September 2019, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out at the symposium on ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin that it is necessary to adhere to the principle of determining the city, the land, the people, and the production by water, and regard water resources as the greatest rigid constraint. In view of the biggest contradiction of water shortage, the Yellow River Protection Law makes comprehensive provisions on the control of total water use, mandatory water quotas, and the construction of water resources allocation projects.
Zhao Lin, Director of the Rural Water Conservancy Division of the Shandong Provincial Department of Water Resources: "To do a good job in the 'four waters and four determinations', we strictly supervise the canal water, actively carry out water-saving transformation of the project, and determine the goal of the development of the province's irrigation area by 2035 according to the development and utilization of water and land resources in the province and the matching of water and soil resources." ”
The "four waters and four determinations" are rigid constraints on the conservation and intensive utilization of water resources, and the entire Yellow River basin should strengthen measures such as agricultural water conservation and efficiency improvement, industrial water conservation and emission reduction, and urban water conservation and loss reduction. The Yellow River Protection Law contains 17 "expressly prohibited" clauses, 10 "prohibited" behavior clauses, and 16 "strict" control and restriction clauses, all of which are red lines that cannot be crossed.
Li Xiaojing: "The Yellow River is short of water resources, and the utilization rate of water resources in the Yellow River has reached 80%, and there is still a problem of extensive water use. To this end, the general secretary proposed to implement the maximum rigid constraints on water resources in the Yellow River Basin, how many soups, how many steamed buns, that is to say, a region's water resources are overloaded, it means that the amount of water withdrawn has exceeded the carrying capacity of the region, that is, we often say that the water resources are overdrawn, then in addition to domestic water and other guarantees, new water intake permits shall not be approved. ”
The scope of application of the Yellow River Protection Law is not 795,000 square kilometers of traditional natural watersheds, but covers 439 county-level administrative areas in 9 provinces, 72 cities and 9 provinces, with a total of 1.32 million square kilometers, according to the needs of ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin. The Yellow River Protection Law stipulates 82 responsibilities of local people's governments at or above the county level, making it one of the laws with the most responsibilities for all parties.
The Yellow River, which flows from Qinghai, meanders through Linxia in Gansu Province and enters Lanzhou. In the past two years, after a comprehensive and meticulous investigation, there are a total of 874 outlets on the main stream and tributaries of the Yellow River in Linxia, most of which are stormwater outlets or abandoned outlets, but there are also 30 outlets mixed with domestic sewage. The environmental protection department has traced the source of all sewage outlets and remediated them one by one according to the source of sewage.
The sewage collected through the pipe network is sent to the sewage treatment plant for treatment. In order to improve the sewage treatment effect, the sewage treatment plants in 8 counties and districts of Linxia Prefecture have been upgraded.
Han Zhenze, head of the Yanpanxia Sewage Treatment Plant in Linxia Prefecture, Gansu Province: "The COD (chemical oxygen demand) we import is 95.28 mg per liter, ammonia nitrogen is 28.53 mg per liter, and the effluent ammonia nitrogen can reach 0.14 mg per liter and COD (chemical oxygen demand) can reach 13.31 mg per liter, which is the national first-class A treatment standard." ”
At the site where the Yellow River flows out of Linxia, there is also a water quality monitoring station, where monitoring is automatic and cannot be interfered with manually.
In terms of sewage treatment, it is stipulated that the local people's governments at or above the county level in the Yellow River Basin shall organize and carry out investigation and rectification of the sewage outlets of rivers and lakes in their respective administrative areas, clarify the responsible subjects, and implement classified management. This is to clarify the boundaries of power and responsibility in the form of law and strengthen the government's regulatory responsibilities.
Li Shenggang, deputy director of the Ecological Environment Bureau of Linxia Prefecture, Gansu Province: "Territorial management is to implement the responsibility of defending the land, and the foothold is to ensure the environmental quality to give the people a better and more beautiful production and living environment, and we ensure that we hand over better water quality downstream." ”
The Yellow River Basin is a unique, complete, complex and huge social and ecological system, and a law of the Yellow River Basin must strengthen the overall concept in order to ensure that "a blueprint is drawn to the end". Cross-regional and cross-provincial cooperation, ecological water replenishment, ecological protection compensation, etc., have become statutory and inevitable actions.
Peng Cheng, Deputy Director of the Water Diversion Division of the Yellow River Affairs Bureau in Shandong: "The ecology of the Yellow River Delta has suffered serious damage, with river channels shrinking, wetlands degrading, and seawater encroachment. Water is an important factor in the ecological elements, and the improvement of the ecological environment is inseparable from the guarantee of water resources. ”
In the past, ecological water replenishment, mainly before the flood season, was relatively passive. The Yellow River Protection Law clearly puts forward the overall requirements of ecological water replenishment and maintenance of the ecological function of the estuary. Not long ago, Shandong Province formulated a local regulation in accordance with the Yellow River Protection Law, the "Shandong Province Yellow River Protection Regulations", which further refines and clarifies the positioning, path and measures for ecological protection of the delta. With on-demand water replenishment and scientific scheduling, the delta wetlands have not only been well restored, but also become larger and wider.
The Yellow River is the birthplace of the Chinese nation and gave birth to Chinese civilization. The Yellow River Protection Law stipulates specific measures to protect, inherit and promote the Yellow River culture in the form of a legal system. After the implementation of the Yellow River Protection Law, many areas along the Yellow River are taking action in accordance with the law to protect and inherit the Yellow River culture.
There is a manor in Jiyang District, Jinan, Shandong Province, which is a Ming Dynasty building, which shows the ancient architectural culture and historical features of the Yellow River Basin relatively completely. However, due to wind and rain erosion and inadequate management and protection, the manor has hidden dangers such as house damage and wall collapse. After receiving the clues, the Jiyang District Procuratorate filed the case for review in accordance with the law, and issued a pre-trial procuratorial recommendation to the relevant administrative organs.
In the year since the implementation of the Yellow River Protection Law, the results have already been revealed. Governing by the law and guarding the mother river with the power of the rule of law is becoming the practice of hundreds of millions of people. However, we should also note that problems such as water shortage, fragile ecology, flood threat, and inadequate high-quality development still exist, and in some places they are still quite prominent. Under the escort of the Yellow River Protection Law, the Yellow River will surely become a happy river for the benefit of the people.