Source: Jiefang Daily
Demolition of an oil depot "returning the river to the people" and changing to a cross-river channel "giving the way to the porpoises"
Yangtze River "finale" Yangtze River protection
Chongming Dongtan Bird National Nature Reserve. Reporter Zhang Chunhai Photo
A few days ago, " Yangtze River White Sturgeon extinction" attracted attention. Wei Qiwei, chief scientist of the Yangtze River Aquatic Products Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Fisheries Sciences, published a paper at the end of last year, saying that according to the model calculation, the Yangtze River White Sturgeon, a rare species endemic to the Yangtze River in China, is expected to become extinct from 2005 to 2010. Heartache.
In recent years, not only the Yangtze River sturgeon, but news about Baijidolphin, Yangtze River sausage and knife fish are also often heartbreaking.
The good news is that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs recently issued a notice that from January 1, 2020, productive fishing will be prohibited in 332 nature reserves and aquatic germplasm resource protection areas in the Yangtze River Basin; natural waters outside the main stream and above important tributaries of the Yangtze River will be subject to a tentatively 10-year fishing ban at the latest from January 1, 2021. On December 23 last year, a law that comprehensively protects the ecological environment of the Yangtze River Basin - the "Yangtze River Protection Law of the People's Republic of China (Draft)" was submitted to the 15th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress for deliberation for the first time.
About December 24 last year, Liu Yiwen, the "dolphin protector" of the Tongling Desalin Water Bark National Nature Reserve, Anhui, drove a small boat out to patrol the river with his colleagues. Although the weather was cold that day, he felt warm because of the news of the "Draft Yangtze River Protection Law" the day before: "I really want to tell the good news about the Yangtze River." The Yangtze River Porpoise, as the only subspecies of the Yangtze River porpoise, is the "barometer" of the Yangtze River ecology, and is also known as the "Smiling Angel of the Yangtze River". Once upon a time, river porpoises were common in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Standing by the riverside of Chongming Island, Zhang Aihua, secretary of the Party Branch of Xinglong Community in Nantong, Qidong, Qilong Town, told reporters that when he was a child, local residents often saw groups of river porpoises, not only river porpoises, but also red-crowned cranes, geese, wild ducks, etc., at that time, they also appeared in reed marshes, and gradually became fewer. Fortunately, around 2018, he saw groups of wild ducks on the river again.
Consistent with the people along the Yangtze River, from January to November 2019, the proportion of excellent water quality in the Yangtze River Economic Belt reached 82.5%, 6.1 percentage points better than the national average. It has been four years since the symposium on promoting the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt on January 5, 2016. "Together to protect the big picture and not carry out big development" has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
The Yangtze River is in action.
people in the Yangtze River missed the reed marsh
Once upon a time, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River "chemical industry locked the river". The reporter has traveled along the Yangtze River in Jiangsu Province many times and saw many chimneys. Chemical parks, thermal power plants, steel plants and metal processing enterprises have been laid out along the coast.
These chimneys and factories have witnessed local development. In Nantong, Jiangsu, the reporter went to Yaogang Oil Depot. Since its establishment in 1958, it has been one of the central oil depots for distribution of refined oil to Nantong, Taizhou and even Yancheng . When it was booming, the tanker trucks lined up more than a mile, and the chemical areas, chemical factories, pesticide factories, etc. that followed brought a lot of income to the locals. Rengang Street, which belongs to Yaogang Community, is the location of Nantonggang Terminal. It has industries such as oil, grain and oil transfer. It was once known as the first "billion yuan township" north of the Yangtze River.
In the 1980s, the first high-rise building in Nantong was built by farmers in fundraising. The 17-story Tiannan Hotel, one of the main sources of customers was from the Yangtze River Wharf. In the 1990s, many local farmers would throw their hoes and run to the dock to do business whenever they heard the sound of a steamer whistle from the dock, "selling tea eggs, instant noodles and mineral water". When business is good, they can stay away from sleep for 24 hours. Later, many shipbuilding companies gathered here, and people had a "consensus": to develop towards the Yangtze River. Through the Yangtze River, Zhangjiagang is located on the other side of Nantong. It was also since the 1980s and 1990s that along the Yangtze River, coal and timber wharfs have emerged, and brightly lit factories have emerged.
This is the "Yangtze River Business" for many years.
However, people of a little older on both sides of the Yangtze River miss the reed marsh - Zhou Fuming, a native of Zhangjiagang, who grew up by the river, remembered that many years ago, there was only one power plant on the Nantong River bank, separated by a river. When the weather was good, even the slogans in the power plant could be seen clearly. Since the 1960s, he has been engaged in flood control of the Yangtze River. He remembers that there were almost no large factories on the Yangtze River coastline on the Zhangjiagang side at that time, "as original as the river channels on the grassland." He recalled more than 70 years ago, the water quality of the Yangtze River was very good, and there were endless reed marshes by the river. The fun of life at that time was to wait for the tide to recede and catch small fish, shrimps and crabs from the small puddles on the shore.
Gradually, there were fewer reed marshes. In the Yaogang area on the north bank of the Yangtze River, there were always black oil stains on the road leading to the oil depot. The small crabs in the Yangtze River had a strong "oil smell". Zhou Fuming recalled: "The water surface is black, and oil flowers are floating on the water." Later, with more and more ships transporting the Yangtze River channel, there were fewer common porpoises, swordfish, pufferfish, etc. in the past.
He missed the past. Once he met a fishing team on the river. They had just bought a basket of puffer fish from Jingjiang , which was more than 8 cents per kilogram. On the river, white porpoises and porpoises often appeared on the water. Shi Hanqing, who was the commander of the militia battalion in the early days of the establishment of the Yaogang Oil Depot, also missed the reed marsh. He remembered that there were bamboo fences around the oil depot, but later it was changed to a wall, and the river beach gradually became embankments and wharfs. The Yangtze River, which could be seen through the reed marsh, gradually could not be seen.
mentioned "the protection of the Yangtze River", and they all agreed.
"Yangtze River Business" has changed
Last year, the Nantong Yaogang Oil Depot began to be demolished and the overall relocation is being started. The oil depot wall has been demolished, and at most, there are twenty or thirty people, and they will go to the river to fish when the tide is low. On the other side of the Yangtze River, Zhangjiagang not only invests more than 1 billion yuan each year for ecological protection and restoration, but also determines Changyinsha Modern Agricultural Demonstration Park as "undevelopment zones".
The river flows, just like a thousand years, but now it is a new look. The "Yangtze River Business" has changed.
"In the past, I only thought about how to develop, but now I pay more attention to high-quality development based on the ecological foundation." Lu Jinkun, who has been working in Yaogang Community for more than 20 years, said that around 2000, local people began to say "no" to the pollution that they were used to. In the past, local residents had relatively weak environmental awareness. In the 1980s, "people from other places could smell pesticides, but locals were used to it." Due to the exhaust gas discharged from chemical plants, the crop leaves turned yellow, and oil stains flowed into the farmland with the rainwater. In order to "solve" the problem, several factories jointly formed a "compensation team" to pay compensation to locals on a mu. Today, it will definitely not work - some people pointed to the word "demolition" on the oil tank and asked: "When will it be demolished?" People all agree that after the rectification along the Yangtze River, the environment has indeed improved much better. The demolition of the old oil depot of more than 60 years is a microcosm of the efforts of cities in the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River to vacate coastlines and break the problem of heavy chemical industry surrounding the river. In the Yonglong Community, Qilong Town, Qilong Town, located on Chongming Island, there used to be a steel mill, one of the few industrial enterprises in the local area. It has existed for 10 years and has been demolished and relocated in the past two years; the nearby brick and tile factory has also been stopped. Ni Hesheng, secretary of the Party Branch of Yonglong Community, told reporters that although the steel mill has contributed considerable taxes and solved a lot of employment, the problems of sewage and dust that can be seen by the people in the naked eye have made the local area determined to move them away.
What ordinary people cannot see is also being rectified. For example, illegal sand mining in the Yangtze River, which is seen by industry insiders is like "drugs on the river". Because of its huge profits, a ship can easily make tens of thousands of yuan in profits a night. Violators are very familiar with the hydrology of the Yangtze River, and some even "seize" the cars of the Water Conservancy Bureau. Not only that, illegal sand mining is becoming more and more advanced. In the past, sand-pulling pipes were mounted like cannons, but now they are invisible pipes, integrated with the power system in the cabin.
Some time ago, an invisible sand mining ship was operating on the water surface of Nantong, and the black smoke was emitting severe black smoke at the stern. When the law enforcement officers were found, the ship sailed to the Chongming waters in Shanghai - in the past, they were "sweeping the snow in front of the door". As long as the illegal ship was driven out of the waters in Nantong, it had nothing to do with Nantong. Unexpectedly, the law enforcement officers chased him all the way, and the ship was eventually captured in the Suzhou waters near the Sutong Bridge. The water conservancy, transportation, port and other departments on the Yangtze River have already been linked to form a joint governance force.
In January 2019, the Jiangsu Higher People's Court required the Second Court of Environmental Resources of the Yangtze River Basin established by the Rugao Municipal People's Court to implement cross-regional jurisdiction over environmental resources related cases of Nantong City (excluding Qidong City, Rudong County ), Yangzhou , and Taizhou City . At present, the Second Court has accepted more than 20 illegal sand mining cases, accounting for 20%. Xue Zhuang, a fourth-level senior judge of Rugao Municipal People's Court, told reporters that in addition to establishing the Second Court of Environmental Resources in the Yangtze River Basin in the People's Court of Rugao Municipal People's Court, he also established the First Court of Environmental Resources in the Yangtze River Basin in the Jiangyin Court on the south bank of the Yangtze River, and has officially launched cross-regional jurisdiction.
In October last year, the second court conducted a two criminal and civil public interest litigation case involving illegal fishing of aquatic products at the Xinhe Village Cultural Square in Jiangdu District, Jiangdu District, which attracted many fishermen to listen. In addition, law enforcement personnel from Rugao and Jiangdu also released 3,425 kilograms of fish fry at Wuxu Wharf, Jiangdu Daqiao Town, Duanyangzhou, Yangtze River. "The principle of 'restorative justice' is promoting the protection of the Yangtze River." Gu Xuehong, deputy president of Rugao Municipal People's Court, introduced that the public interest litigation involved in it will not only better restore the ecology in a timely manner before reproduction and release, but also serve as a basis for lenient sentencing. "The second court was established not only for cases, but to promote the maximization of ecological protection effects, in order to restore and improve the ecological environment." Gu Xuehong said that the second court is actively promoting environmental public interest litigation with the value goal of effectively restoring the ecological environment, and the ecological environment restoration funds are paid in place for more than 3 million yuan.
Ecological protection is not bounded by
0 is not far from the Yaogang oil depot that is being demolished. Last year, an outdoor bathing site was opened by the Yangtze River in Nantong - Langshan Riverside Bathing Site. Together with the riverside trails and the green square, it has become the best interpretation of Nantong's "returning the river to the people".
From the past "no riverside" to the current "urban living room", the transformation of the Wushan Mountains and the riverside areas in Nantong made the outside world exclaim, and also gave Nantong citizens a sense of real gain. In the past, there were not many places to see the Yangtze River directly, and Langshan was one of the choices, and most of the other areas were factories, wharfs, etc. "I just arrived in Nantong more than 20 years ago and rode a motorcycle to Langshan to see the Yangtze River. At that time, the length of the shoreline that was available for walking tours could be completed in a short time, without much effort." Wang Hailing, deputy director of the Nantong Water Resources Bureau, said that if you want to walk along the Yangtze River coastline in the Langshan area, it would take two or three hours to walk.
It is worth mentioning that Shanghai Chongming , Wuxi Jiangyin, Nantong Rugao and other places are carrying out judicial cooperation in ecological environment protection of the Yangtze River Estuary, with the purpose of building ecological civilization in the Yangtze River Estuary. The Yangtze River Estuary is an important ecologically sensitive area in the world and is also the only unique habitat in the life cycle of fish "living fossils" Chinese sturgeon . In 2016, Shanghai completed and put into use the first phase of the Shanghai Yangtze River Estuary Chinese Sturgeon Protection Base. Now, as an important part of Chongming's world-class ecological island construction, the second phase of the base has officially started and is expected to be basically completed in 2021.
Last year, the Nantong Municipal Government and the Chongming District Government of Shanghai signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation framework agreement. The two parties will jointly formulate and implement the "Dongping-Haiyong-Qilong Town Circle Collaborative Plan" and jointly build a strategic collaborative zone for ecological protection in the Yangtze River Estuary. "Shanghai's construction of Chongming's world-class ecological island is inseparable from Nantong on the north bank of the Yangtze River to jointly promote large-scale protection." Cheng Changchun, a consultant of the Jiangsu Provincial Government and director of the Jiangsu Yangtze River Economic Belt Research Institute, told reporters that how to "take hands on" the protection of the Yangtze River Delta with higher quality integrated development should take the lead in making the Yangtze River a model and model of national ecological development.
The protection of the Yangtze River is not only in its main stream, but also in its tributaries. Chishan Lake National Wetland Park, located on the north bank of Chuhe River, a first-class tributary of the Yangtze River, was fully adopted by Nanjing, Jiangsu and Chuzhou City in Anhui to "refuse fishing, return farmland, and return wetland" and implement ecological restoration and protective development in the region. Now, the Chishan Lake National Wetland Park, which covers an area of 5,800 acres, has the largest Chishan forest in the East China region and is also an important migratory bird habitat in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Interestingly, the park has two gates, located in , Liuhe District, Nanjing and Chuzhou Laian County . "Liuhe and Laian each account for half of this park." The staff of the wetland park explained that ecological protection does not distinguish between provincial boundaries.
For the sake of the Yangtze River, everyone is thinking of ways. Last year, Nanjing changed a crossing channel plan to "give way to the porpoise." At the end of last year, the Anhui Provincial Forestry Bureau launched a preliminary investigation into the protection of the entire river dolphin basin of the Anhui section of the Yangtze River, and planned to integrate the resources of the porpoise resources distributed in Anqing , Chizhou , Tongling , Wuhu and other places, and prepare to establish the Anhui plunder national nature reserve. Zhang Aihua, who works on Chongming Island, also has new expectations for the Yangtze River. There is a place called Xianhe Village in Xinglong Community, Qilong Town. Zhang Aihua is thinking about whether he can build a small wetland park or protected area there? "Since the red-crowned cranes have been here, can they attract them again in the future?" he imagined.
is located in Zhangjiagang, Suzhou. The current local Yangtze River Flood Control Project Management Office is built in the place where the river beach collapsed the most severely back then. Zhou Fuming dedicated most of his life to the Yangtze River. In order to guard the river embankment, he rode his bike and walked along the riverside day after day for many years. His son Zhou Xunfeng is also an employee of the Yangtze River Flood Control Project Management Office, and has worked on the Yangtze River for more than 20 years, guarding 6 Tongjiang sluices. What’s even more interesting is that in recent years, there have been many “father and son soldiers” here, protecting the Yangtze River. (Reporter Ren Junmangan)
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