Wu Guangqiang

jw368@163.com

DURING my tours of over a dozen countries in Europe, North America, Asia and Oceania in recent years, I was intrigued more by the well-preserved natural beauty than by human landscape there. I was fascinated by the endless lush forests covering much of Russia, Norway and Canada, the verdant meadows in America, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland, and well-protected clear rivers and lakes in most countries I had visited.

My biggest reward of my overseas trips was not suitcases filled with designer clothes or brand items, but the realization of the fact that there is a huge discrepancy between our country’s material progress and ecological civilization.

While decades of breathtaking economic growth has lifted the majority of Chinese people out of poverty and brought modernity to this ancient nation, it left the country with big deficits in the ecological environment. Ecological woes include serious soil erosion, air, water, and soil pollution, desertification and grassland retrogression.

According to China’s 2017 Report on Ecological Situation Status released by the Ministry of Ecological Environment along with other ministries, despite the country’s unwavering efforts in alleviating ecological environment deterioration in past decades, China’s ecological environment remains fragile and the environmental safety situation pretty grim.

Like in past years, water pollution still tops the problem chart. River pollution is far from getting improved, if not exacerbated. The worst-polluted river is the Haihe River and its tributaries, graded as moderately polluted. Next come the Huanghe River, Songhua River, Huaihe River and Liaohe River, all marked as lightly polluted.

Underground water pollution is even more worrisome. Data from 5,100 water quality monitoring sites across the country showed that nearly 70 percent of samples were graded as bad or very bad. The chief standard-exceeding pollutants include such chemicals and heavy metals as nitrite nitrogen, ammonia nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen, arsenic, lead and mercury.

Nationwide air quality saw some improvement. A 6.5 percent drop in PM2.5 and a 5.1 percent fall in PM10 were registered respectively in 338 medium and large cities across the country. However, 70.7 percent of the cities still suffer substandard air quality with a 0.8 percent drop in the average number of days of good quality than in 2016.

Severe air pollution is reflected in the thick smog that engulfs many cities in northern China in late autumn and throughout winter.

To cope with the grave challenge of ecological pollution, the central authorities in February last year issued guidelines on an ecological “red line” that would declare certain regions under mandatory and rigorous protection. According to the document, China will have completed all necessary legislation and executive preparations about the definition and enforcement of the “red line” by the end of 2020.

The “red line” strategy will apply to regions with important ecological functions, including water and soil conservation, biodiversity maintenance as well as windbreak and sand-fixation, along with ecologically fragile regions which are prone to soil erosion, desertification and salinization.

Required by the guidelines, Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, as well as regions along the Yangtze River Economic Belt, would have drawn up a “red line” for ecological protection by the end of 2017, while other areas should come up with a “red line” before the end of 2018.

By the end of 2020, the demarcation of the border and calibration of the regions should be completed and an ecological protection “red line” system will be basically established.

By 2030, the layout of the ecological protection “red line” will be further optimized, effectively implemented, the ecological function of the regions promoted, and national ecological safety guaranteed, according to the document.

In February this year, the State Council approved the plans for the establishment of the ecological protection “red line” systems presented by 15 provincial, regional and municipal governments including Beijing, Tianjin, Guangdong, Heilongjiang and Tibet. Other 16 provinces will complete drawing up their own plans by the end of this year.

On May 18 this year, speaking at a national conference on ecological protection in Beijing, President Xi Jinping stressed the importance of the construction of ecological civilization, calling it a fundamental policy that concerns the sustainable development of the Chinese nation.

“The flourishment of our national civilization is closely linked with that of ecological civilization,” he pointed out.

Hopefully, the “red line” policy will make a big difference.

(The author is an English tutor and freelance writer.)