Posted on March 2, 2017
By Li Huacheng and Li Xinran, ShanghaiDaily.com
JIADING leaders have been appointed “river chiefs” to clean up polluted waterways within the district.
Party Secretary Ma Chunlei, along with Zhang Xi, district director, and Cai Xiaofei, vice director, take full responsibility for improving water quality.
Meanwhile, officials at township level in Jiading are responsible for the rivers and waterways at their doorsteps.
The names and responsibilities of the river chiefs are made public to help ensure public supervision.
Clean-up plans have been made for each river and waterway, including dredging dried watercourses and demolishing illegal structures along riverbanks.
Xiao Wei was given the job of cleaning up and guaranteeing the water quality of an 880-meter-long waterway in Malu Town. Xiao, head of Malu, has twice patrolled the area since the Lunar New Year celebration.
The responsibilities of Xiao and other river chiefs include water resource protection, pollution prevention and control, and ecological restoration.
Apart from dredging the river, Xiao plans to rebuild riverbanks and plant trees to boost long-term sustainability.
All the 2,036 waterways in Jiading have river chiefs.
Jiang Fanghua, Party secretary of Yuhua Village in Jiading Industrial Zone, patrols 10 rivers. Jiang will report any signs of pollution to his supervisor for the river chief at township level to take action. River chiefs at district level work as coordinators.
The 10 rivers that run through Yuhua Village nourish 200 hectares of farmland. Water quality is a key factor for grain production.
An action to dismantle 2,400 square meters of illegal structures along the riverbanks will be carried out at the village, and three clogged-up ponds will be unblocked.
Jiading’s efforts are part of a Shanghai-wide campaign to clean up rivers by the end of the year.
The city has found 630 kilometers of polluted rivers, mainly in suburban districts, the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau says.
The major clean-up measures include dredging polluted rivers, removing floating pollutants, building separate sewage and rainwater pipes, as well as demolishing illegal riverbank structures. Dead-end rivers, prone to stinking, will be unblocked.
The city aims to clean up the polluted and odorous rivers by the end of the year, says Shanghai Party Secretary Han Zheng, while eliminating all grade 5 rated rivers by 2020. By that date all the rivers in Shanghai are expected to have attained city and national standards. (China classifies water quality into six grades, with grade 6 being severely contaminated.)
According to a survey early last year, half of local rivers were rated grade 5.
The city’s environmental protection, water, police, urban management, traffic, maritime and power authorities have established a joint law enforcement team to crack down on water polluters.
Source: ShanghaiDaily.com
