Is is also known as Shuishitiao or Water Ten Plan.China's central authorities attach great importance to water pollution prevention and control. In April 2015, the State Council released the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan. The document prioritized water conservation and aimed to bring about a balanced spatial configuration with provisions for systematic treatment. It required to have science-based treatment of different rivers and lakes and different regions of the sea, establish a new market-driven mechanism with government guidance, actions by enterprises, and public participation in water pollution control, and advance systematic water pollution prevention and control, water ecosystem protection, and water resource conservation.
The document listed 10 measures:
•controlling the discharge of pollutants across the board;
•transforming and upgrading the economic structure;
•conserving and protecting water resources;
•providing stronger technological support;
•giving full play to the market;
•reinforcing environment-related law enforcement and supervision;
•strengthening management of the water environment;
•ensuring water ecosystem security;
•clarifying responsibilities of all parties involved; and
•encouraging public participation and scrutiny.
In recent years, relevant government departments have joined the campaign to keep China's waters clear, and overall changes have taken place in the water ecosystem. The proportion of surface water with a quality rating of Grade III or better rose from 66 percent in 2015 to 83.4 percent in 2020, while the proportion of surface water worse than Grade V fell from 9.7 percent to 0.6 percent, and 98.2 percent of the 2,914 black, malodorous water bodies in cities at or above prefecture level had been eliminated. As a result, more people now have access to safe drinking water.
During the 14th Five-year Plan period (2021-2025), China will continue to work on water ecosystem protection and restoration, so that there will be clear waters, fish and aquatic plants in the rivers, and harmony between humanity and water. It will turn from pollution control to holistic treatment of the water ecosystem, environment, and resources, thus laying a sound foundation for a beautiful China.
Water Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan. The Plan drew on advice from many ministries and incorporated prior announcements like the three “red lines”. The Plan aims to enforce stricter standards, increase water monitoring efforts, strengthen the enforcement of environmental laws, punish polluters and especially target heavily polluting industries. Specific performance indicators are set, with definite goals and timelines. For example, the Plan states that by 2020, 70% of the water in the major watersheds and 93% of the drinking water sources in major cities are to meet Grade III or higher standards.
The result
The first is to comprehensively control the discharge of water pollutants. By the end of 2018, 97.4% of the country's industrial agglomeration areas at or above the provincial level had built centralized sewage treatment facilities and installed automatic online monitoring devices. The anti-seepage renovation of the underground oil tank of the gas station has been completed by 78%. More than 10 million gross tons of old transport vessels were dismantled, and 42,500 inland vessels were dismantled and renovated. 4,332 sewage treatment plants have been built and operated in cities and towns across the country, with a sewage treatment capacity of 195 million cubic meters per day. A total of more than 262,000 livestock and poultry farms (communities) in the forbidden area have been closed or relocated, and 5,628 demonstration farms for healthy aquatic breeding have been created. A total of 163,000 villages have carried out comprehensive improvement of the rural environment, and Zhejiang's "Demonstration of 10000 Villages and Improvement of 10,000 Villages" won the 2018 United Nations Champions of the Earth Award.
The second is to make every effort to ensure the safety of the water ecological environment. Promote the national centralized environmental improvement of drinking water sources, with a completion rate of 99.9% of 6,251 problems in 1,586 water sources, 3,740 industrial enterprises have been relocated, 1,883 sewage outlets have been closed and banned, and the level of drinking water safety and security for 550 million residents has been improved. Among the 1,062 black and odorous water bodies in 36 key cities (municipalities directly under the central government, provincial capitals, and cities specifically designated in the state plan), 1,009 have eliminated or basically eliminated black odor, with an elimination rate of 95%, and the sense of gain of the surrounding people has been significantly enhanced. Strengthen the prevention and control of cyanobacterial blooms in key lakes and reservoirs such as Taihu Lake and Dianchi Lake. 11 coastal provinces have formulated and implemented provincial-level plans for the prevention and control of pollution in coastal waters to promote the prevention and control of marine litter (microplastics) pollution.
The third is to work together to promote pollution control in the river basin. The river (lake) chief system has been established in an all-round way, and more than 300,000 river chiefs and 24,000 lake chiefs at the provincial, municipal, county, and township levels have been identified across the country. The Yangtze River Ecological Environment Protection and Restoration Joint Research Center was established, and the 11 provinces (municipalities) in the Yangtze River Economic Belt and Qinghai Province compiled and completed the "Three Lines and One Order" (ecological protection red line, environmental quality bottom line, resource utilization upper line and ecological environment access list). The Chishui River and other river basins have carried out pilot projects to set up environmental supervision and administrative law enforcement agencies according to river basins. Upstream and downstream provinces in the Xin'an River, Jiuzhou River, Tingjiang-Hanjiang River, Dongjiang River, Luanhe River, Chaobai River and other river basins have established horizontal ecological compensation pilot projects.
The monitoring data shows that in 2018, the proportion of excellent water quality (Class I.-III.) and loss of use function (poor Class V.) in the state-controlled section of surface water was 71.0% and 6.7%, respectively, an increase of 6.5 percentage points and a decrease of 2.1 percentage points compared with 2015, and the water quality improved steadily. However, the situation of water pollution prevention and control is still grim, and there are still some outstanding problems in the construction of urban and rural environmental infrastructure, the control of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, and the protection of water ecology in river basins, which need to be solved at a faster pace.
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