Investigation on the protection and development of the core water source areas of the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project

Source: Economic Daily

The South-to-North Water Diversion Project aims to solve the problem of "lack of abundance in the north and abundance in the south" in the distribution of water resources on the mainland. The Danjiangkou Reservoir spans Shiyan in Hubei Province and Nanyang in Henan Province, and is the core water source of the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project. In order to ensure the sustainable northward flow of clean water, the two places regard the ecological and environmental protection of the water source area as the top priority, and at the same time build a solid water quality safety barrier, rely on ecological advantages to develop characteristic industries, coordinate protection and development, and explore a win-win road of "green" and "rich".

Henan and Hubei provinces have a common pearl in the palm of their hands - Danjiangkou Reservoir, whose waters span Shiyan City in Hubei Province and Nanyang City in Henan Province, and is the core water source of the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project. Since the opening of the first phase of the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, more than 60 billion cubic meters of water have been safely transported to the north, and the water supply quality has reached the Class I standard, providing a solid water security guarantee for promoting the implementation of major national strategies, promoting high-quality economic and social development, and accelerating the construction of a new development pattern.

In May 2021, when General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected the Danjiangkou Reservoir, he pointed out that it is necessary to take the ecological and environmental protection of the water source area as the top priority, draw a hard bar, unswervingly do a good job in various tasks, and guard the clear water of the reservoir.

In recent years, Shiyan City, Hubei Province and Nanyang City, Henan Province have kept in mind the entrustment of the General Secretary, gathered consensus and formed a joint work force to jointly protect the safety line of drinking water for hundreds of millions of people, the ecological line of reviving thousands of rivers and lakes, and the lifeline of the north-south economy. What are the innovative measures in Shiyan and Nanyang to maintain water quality and promote development, and how to achieve protection and development in development?

Clear water flows

Water quality is the key to water transfer. "Pollution control first and then water, environmental protection before water use", water quality standards are a bottom line of the South-to-North Water Diversion.

pH 8, dissolved oxygen 8.8mg/L...... At 12 o'clock on March 2, the Hujialing automatic water quality monitoring station in the Danjiangkou reservoir area of Shiyan detected such a set of data. "Monitoring data shows that the 107 index factors of Hanjiang River water in Danjiangkou Reservoir have reached Class I water quality. Lan Jinsong, director of the Shiyan Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment, said that this means that the water of the Han River in Shiyan can be drunk directly.

Huang Jianxiong, secretary of the Shiyan Municipal Party Committee, told reporters that shouldering the important responsibility of ensuring the sustainable northward movement of a flood of clean water and the construction of a green and low-carbon development demonstration zone, Shiyan took full care of the "Beijing-Tianjin well" like protecting his eyes, and did not let a drop of sewage out of the reservoir area. In recent years, Shiyan City has shut down more than 560 high-energy-consuming and high-polluting enterprises, rejected more than 160 projects that do not meet environmental protection standards, and "cleared" more than 180,000 fish cages, with a cumulative investment of more than 15 billion yuan, built 2,589 kilometers of urban and rural sewage pipe networks, and 1,967 micro-powered non-powered distributed rural domestic sewage treatment facilities, building a comprehensive sewage treatment system.

In 2023, Shiyan will implement the "one ditch and one policy" investigation and rectification of 88 key branch ditches in the main urban area, and start the provincial pilot work of comprehensive management of the Maota River watershed. Continue to implement the water quality assessment of the cross-border section of the county in the whole area of the key tributaries of 10 counties (cities and districts), including three indicators: permanganate index, ammonia nitrogen and total phosphorus. Every month, the environmental protection department implements cross-border cross-section water quality assessment for 125 towns and towns in the city, and the water quality changes of each section are used as an important basis for the assessment of water pollution prevention and control. At present, the water quality of 27 assessment sections above the provincial level in Shiyan City has all reached the standard.

Strict ecological protection has achieved Shiyan's unique ecological advantages. Lan Jinsong said: "Ecology is the biggest feature of Shiyan and the brightest brand. "At present, the forest coverage rate of Shiyan City is 73.86%, the forest area is 1.938 million hectares, accounting for nearly one-fifth of Hubei Province, and the amount of wetlands is maintained at more than 92,600 hectares, becoming an important ecological security barrier of the country.

The water system is connected, and only by cooperating with neighbors and coordinating the upstream and downstream can we jointly protect the clear water to the north.

On the bank of the Danjiang River, Zhao Jianfeng, a member of the drifting team, dressed in overalls and wearing a hard hat, boarded a small boat with the flag of "shipping and drifting" and started his day's work.

Zhao Jianfeng said: "Our team is responsible for about 130 square kilometers of water, and there is almost no white garbage on the entire water surface, mainly salvaging some dead branches and aquatic plants. There are more than 8,000 "guardians" of the reservoir area like Zhao Jianfeng in Xichuan County.

Xichuan County divides the entire reservoir area into three operating waters: the stork river, the upstream and the downstream of the reservoir area, and is equipped with nearly 30 ships and 2 transport vehicles for bleaching work, and carries out volunteer service activities of "bleaching and water protection" on a regular basis. These "guardians" of the reservoir area have fulfilled their duties in the teams of bleaching, water protection, and forest protection, and have built the "first Great Wall" to protect water quality.

"In order to shoulder the important task of ensuring the sustainable northward movement of clean water and build a solid water quality safety barrier, we organized and carried out a special rectification action of 'guarding a reservoir of clear water', and self-pressurized, self-inspection and self-correction of illegal points, demolished dams, mushroom greenhouses, houses, farms and other facilities that violated laws and regulations, and promoted water quality protection with high quality. Zhou Dapeng, member of the Standing Committee of the Nanyang Municipal Party Committee and secretary of the Xichuan County Party Committee, said.

Ecological environmental protection is a red line of development, and in Nanyang, all districts and counties have made great efforts to eliminate pollution at the source. Xichuan County has carried out special actions such as "cleaning up the four chaos" and "guarding a reservoir of clear water", successively shut down more than 380 polluting enterprises, banned water catering boats in the reservoir area, more than 50,000 boxes of fish cages, and 400 farms in the forbidden area. Dengzhou City has put an end to the occurrence of hidden pollution hazards at the source, and has implemented the strictest approval system for construction projects within a 2-kilometer extension of the South-to-North Water Diversion Catchment Area and the main trunk canal water source protection area, and prohibits all new projects that may cause water pollution. In addition, Dengzhou City has also built and put into operation 90,000 tons/day sewage treatment plants in urban areas, 3 township sewage treatment plants, 205 village-level sewage treatment stations, and 99,000 water flushing toilets of various types have been built in combination with the "toilet revolution", which has basically solved the problem of direct discharge of rural domestic sewage and polluted ditches and ponds.

Water quality monitoring is an important means to protect water resources. Xichuan County has established a long-term mechanism for water quality protection and operation, built a comprehensive management system of "smart river chief", and installed more than 200 monitoring equipment in key rivers and river sections to achieve all-round and all-weather monitoring of rivers. Dengzhou City invested more than 360 yuan to build 10 micro stations for automatic monitoring of river water quality in rural areas, to find and solve problems at the first time, improve the level of precise pollution control, and ensure that the water quality of 4 rivers continues to meet the standard. Through water quality safety inspections and water quality monitoring, Xixia County timely and accurately and comprehensively reflects the current situation and development trend of reservoir water environment quality, provides a scientific basis for water environment management, planning, evaluation and water pollution prevention and control, and effectively prevents water pollution and protects the water environment.

Barren mountains are regreened

Ensuring the safety of water quality in the Danjiangkou reservoir area is a complex system project, in which soil erosion control is very important.

The foundation of water control lies in mountain control. Xichuan County, Nanyang City is a typical karst landform, the site conditions are not good, the county's rocky desertification area of 1.258 million acres. Who would have thought that the once rocky desertification area is promoting afforestation and greening at a scale of 100,000 mu per year, and vitality and vitality are gradually "germinating" in the mountains.

In rocky desertification areas, the soil layer is thin, the soil water retention capacity is poor, and the rock leakage is strong, which makes afforestation very difficult, the seedling preservation rate is low, and the afforestation cost is also very high. "It's not easy to plant trees on a rocky hill, you have to water it thoroughly. In the Shuangquanguan Land Greening Pilot Demonstration Project Area in Majiao Town, Xichuan County, forest ranger Li Weizheng and his team members are watering the trees planted last year.

For the sake of this forest, the rangers broke their hearts. "When we plant trees in winter, the wind is biting, and we have to pull the saplings into the mountains at 5 a.m. Li Wei told reporters that they had to take out water pumps, lay water pipes, and prepare tools next to the reservoir halfway up the mountain, and more than 30 forest rangers formed groups of three or five to carry saplings with soil balls to the mountains to plant trees, and they worked all day. In the past 12 years, Li Wei has participated in afforestation of more than 20,000 acres, patrolling the mountains for nearly 300 days every year, and traveling more than 30,000 kilometers in total.

"Planting trees here is definitely a 'technical job'. It is not only necessary to screen suitable tree species and combinations of trees, shrubs and grasses, but also to experiment with new drought-resistant afforestation and water retention technologies such as 'guest soil' and 'tray planting', and fully consider supervision and post-maintenance. Liang Hubing, Secretary of the Party Group and Director of the Xichuan County Forestry Bureau, said.

In order to put on a "green coat" of water protection for the mountains, Xichuan County challenged the problem of rocky desertification. In recent years, the qualified area of new afforestation in Xichuan ranks among the top at the county level in Henan Province, and the national ecological civilization construction demonstration zone has been successfully established, and the afforestation practices and experience in difficult places have been promoted by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration. The forest coverage rate of the Huanku in Xichuan County increased from 45.7% at the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan to 61.7%, and the greening rate of barren mountains and wastelands suitable for forests reached 95.8%.

Crested ibis, Baer's Pochard, Chinese merganser duck and other national key protected animals are frequent visitors to the Dashiqiao Wetland Restoration Demonstration Area in Xichuan County. There are nearly 10,000 water birds of all kinds here all year round. "Not long ago, the Oriental White Stork, a national first-class key protected wild animal, appeared in the Danjiang Wetland, this endangered level of the traveling bird is known as the 'National Treasure of the Bird World' and the 'Bird Giant Panda', and the number of birds that flew down the Danjiang Wetland reached 28, which is rare. This is enough to confirm that the ecological environment of the Danjiang wetland continues to improve, and it has built a solid ecological barrier to ensure the sustainable northward movement of a flood of clear water. Ling Jianwei, deputy director of the Management Office of Henan Danjiang Wetland National Nature Reserve, introduced.

A person in charge of the Shiyan City Water Conservancy and Lake Bureau said that Shiyan has achieved remarkable results in maintaining good water quality in the core water source area of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project as its goal and controlling soil erosion and non-point source pollution as the starting point. The four projects have a total area of 2,342 square kilometers of soil erosion, with an investment of 2.384 billion yuan. 1,405.53 square kilometers were closed and treated for the clothing project alone, the vegetation coverage rate of the demonstration area increased by more than 2%, the annual average erosion modulus decreased from 4,454 tons per square kilometer to 3,368 tons per square kilometer, and the annual sediment storage volume and runoff reached 22.66 million tons and 190 million cubic meters respectively.

Ecological enrichment

Nanyang and Shiyan have explored the same goal -- deeply practicing the concept of "two mountains" and achieving a win-win situation of economic development and ecological protection in the green transformation.

Taking advantage of the advantages of the good ecological environment promoted by the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project and the pattern positioning of the core water source protection area, Nanyang focuses on supporting the cultural tourism and homestay industries. Zhu Shixi, secretary of the Nanyang Municipal Party Committee, believes that in order to deeply practice the concept of "two mountains", it is necessary to protect and develop in development, promote the protection of water ecology and high-quality economic development as a whole, and realize the mutual promotion of ecological, economic and social benefits.

Walking in Zouzhuang Village, Jiuzhong Town, Xichuan County, a new village for immigrants, the farmhouse courtyards are neat and orderly, and the industrial bases are full of vitality. In order to better support the development of Zouzhuang Village, Xichuan County put forward the strategy of building "Da Zouzhuang", and Zouzhuang Village and the neighboring four villages of Xiakong, Kongbei and Shuizhai established a joint party branch to promote rural revitalization with group development. Under the guidance of "Dazouzhuang", 469 villages (communities) in the county have formed a "wild goose array" to comprehensively promote rural revitalization.

"The home is beautiful, the village is beautiful, and the days are getting more and more beautiful. This year, we established the 'Well Diggers Agricultural Cooperative'. Land circulation, village work, and dividends from shares, these three incomes add up to much higher income than farming. Villager Zou Huiyan said.

Villager Quan Fengxia never dreamed that she would not only achieve employment at her doorstep, but also become a tour guide to promote her hometown. Three generations of the family have experienced the construction and opening of the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, and now they can introduce the village's past to tourists who visit Zouzhuang Village, and tell the hardships of relocation and the happy life now, Quan Fengxia is extremely proud.

Mogou Village, Cangfang Town, is located in the core water source area of the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project. In order to break the predicament, Xichuan County invested 1 billion yuan to plan the construction of tourism channels and service centers with high standards, set up a tourism development fund, and set aside 15 million yuan every year to focus on supporting the development of the tourism industry. With simple farmhouse dishes and clean homestays, Hongyun Villa in Mogou Village is doing brisk business. Zhou Wei, the owner of the homestay, said: "The annual income can exceed 100,000 yuan, and the good mountains and rivers have brought us a good life. ”

In Zhushan County, Shiyan City, the ecological tour of Taihe Plum Blossom Valley Scenic Area has driven the farmers in Taihe Village to develop facilities for vegetables and characteristic breeding, and the villagers have set up farmhouses and transformed into tourist meals.

He Qi, operation manager of Shiyan Taihe Meihua Valley Ecotourism Development Co., Ltd., told reporters: "Now, the river here is smooth, the water is clear, the bank is green, the scenery is beautiful, and the 'mountain tea garden, the mountain orchard, the forest amusement park, and the village head paradise' have laid the foundation for the development of the scenic spot and the employment of the surrounding villagers." "At present, Taihe Plum Blossom Valley Scenic Area has achieved direct employment of more than 300 people, indirectly driven by the employment of more than 500 people, and through the development of rural tourism, the average annual income of villagers has increased by more than 7,000 yuan.

With the help of the fame of Wudang Mountain in the domain, Shiyan stared at the brand to make a fuss.

In the thousand-acre tea base of Kuanping Village, Chengguan Town, Zhushan County, tea farmer Li Jianhua carries a basket of soil to fertilize the tea garden. He told reporters that in the past, with its own brand, the market was limited to the county. Since joining the regional public brand of "Wudang Mountain Tea", tea has quickly entered Wuhan, Xi'an, Beijing and other big cities, and is also sold to the European market, with an increase of more than 2,000 yuan per mu.

"Wudang cultural IP helps open up the market. Wu Shanhong, director of the Shiyan Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, introduced that in 2023, Shiyan will rely on Wudang culture and regional characteristics such as high fragrance and organic tea, integrate more than 300 tea enterprises and 830,000 acres of tea bases, and create a "Wudang Mountain Tea" brand. The development of summer and autumn "Dalu tea" alone has increased the output by more than 8,000 tons, and the income of tea farmers has increased by 1.5 billion yuan.

"The Wudang culture, which influences the world, is also an inexhaustible resource for economic growth. Wu Shanhong said that Wudang Mountain in Shiyan is well-known at home and abroad, and it is a national 5A-level scenic spot. In his view, by igniting the "accelerator" for the high-quality development of the cultural industry, it can help achieve a win-win situation of high-level protection and high-quality development of water source areas.

More than 60 kilometers away from Wudang Mountain Scenic Area and 50 minutes' drive on the bank of the Han River, Wudang Sleepless City in Yunyang District, Shiyan City is brightly lit. With the theme of Wudang culture, this sleepless city project integrates node performances, special food, cultural and creative retail and other complex formats, attracting more than 370,000 tourists from the surrounding area within three days of opening.

Wudang cultural IP has been expanded, Wudang Mountain mineral water, Wudang Mountain rice wine, Wudang orange ...... With the blessing of characteristic culture and good ecology, a number of branded high-quality products have gone to all parts of the country, which has also driven the local people to increase their income and become rich. In 2023, Shiyan decided to plan and build the "Wudang New Area" with high standards, and promote the integration of the central urban area with Wudang Mountain and Danjiangkou. (Economic Daily reporter Xia Xianqing, Dong Qingsen, Yang Zipei, Liu Jie)