SUBDISTRICT government offices have mobilized government staff and residents to make contributions in cleaning up the rivers and streams in Bao’an.

The district government has made cleaning up filthy rivers one of its priorities. Central Government inspectors have also required the district to dismantle buildings that were built many years ago near the water source protection areas by the end of November.

Meanwhile, the water quality of the Maozhou River in Bao’an District will be greatly improved by next year as Shenzhen has ramped up its efforts to fight water pollution, according to the city’s water affairs bureau.

In the city government’s latest effort to treat polluted rivers, a new round of the special campaign to tackle industrial sources of water pollution was kicked off citywide Oct. 11. Law enforcement teams will mainly be checking water pollution sources along 32 sections of polluted rivers in Longgang and Bao’an districts.

Official data showed that Shenzhen had filed 1,169 environmental pollution cases and levied penalties totaling around 141 million yuan (US$20.35 million) on polluters by the end of September.

The city government will spend 33.6 billion yuan on 397 projects this year, including 272 projects initiated in 2017, according to the bureau.

The projects will focus on building pipelines, upgrading water purification plants, cleaning rivers, and monitoring sewage discharge enterprises.

The projects will see through the construction of 2,353 kilometers of sewage pipelines, the separation of sewage drains from rainwater drains in 5,520 housing estates, 153 kilometers of river cleanup, and the initiation of cleanup work on 133 polluted river sections. All sewage outlets into rivers will be eliminated, and 62 heavily polluted river sections will be returned to a clean state, according to the bureau. Nineteen water purification plants will be upgraded, leading to a 460,000-ton-per-day increase in the city’s water treatment capacity and elevated standards for 2.08 million tons of treated water a day.

According to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the number of environment pollution cases handled by Shenzhen between January and August this year ranked fifth nationwide and the total sum of the fines levied took third place.

As for treating polluted water, more than 20 operations were conducted between January and September across Shenzhen. Law enforcement officials issued fines totaling 8.5 million yuan on enterprises that had polluted rivers.

(Li Jing)