BEIJING, Nov. 18 (Xinhua)-Zhao Yingmin, vice minister of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said on the 18th that the water environment quality in China is generally improving, but the situation is still grim, with widespread ecological destruction in river basins, non-point source pollution not effectively curbed, serious pollution in some tributaries, prominent eutrophication in some lakes, water environment carrying capacity reaching or approaching the upper limit, and "black odor" problems in many rivers and ditches flowing through towns. However, there is no contradiction between the overall improvement of the country and the local deterioration.
The the State Council Press Office held a routine briefing on the State Council policy today to introduce the policies related to the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" for eco-environment. For the reporter’s "‘ Water Ten Articles ’ Zhao Yingmin answered questions such as the progress made in one year’s implementation, what problems exist in water pollution prevention and control, and the focus of the next step.
Zhao Yingmin introduced that "Water Ten Articles" was released in 2015, and this year is the first implementation year, which has made great progress. Over the past year, there have been six main developments: First, according to the requirements of the "Water Ten Articles", the Ministry of Environmental Protection and 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) signed a responsibility letter for water pollution prevention and control, which decomposed the quality improvement tasks required by the "Water Ten Articles" into provinces one by one, and also required the provinces to decompose them into cities one by one, and finally implemented them in 1940 control units across the country. Each unit has clear and specific environmental quality for each year. At the same time, the Ministry of Environmental Protection has also established a national water pollution prevention and control mechanism, which has promoted the establishment of a linkage and cooperation mechanism for water pollution prevention and control in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions.
The second is to organize the compilation of water pollution prevention and control plans for key river basins, prevent and control water pollution in the whole process, promote water resources conservation and recycling, and strengthen ecological protection and restoration.
The third is to organize investigation and evaluation of the environmental protection status of more than 900 centralized drinking water sources in cities at prefecture level and above, and guide all localities to speed up the standardized construction of drinking water sources. This includes the delineation of drinking water source protection areas, and cleaning up illegal buildings and sewage outlets in the protection areas according to law.
Fourth, according to the requirements of water quality improvement, decompose and implement the targets and requirements for emission reduction of major water pollutants in the 13 th Five-Year Plan and 2016.
The fifth is to implement the task of comprehensively improving the environment of 130,000 newly established villages by 2020, implement the central rural energy conservation and emission reduction funds in 2016, and support all localities to continue to comprehensively improve the rural environment.
Sixth, a series of relevant technical documents have been issued to guide the implementation of the "Water Ten Articles" in various places, including the Technical Guide for the Preparation of Water Body Standards, and a series of other technical documents.
At present, this year is 1-mdash; Of the 1,922 monitoring sections with monitoring data in September, 1,351 were above Grade III, accounting for 70.3%, up 4.0 percentage points year-on-year. At the same time, it should also be noted that 166 are inferior to category V, accounting for 8.6% of the total, a year-on-year decrease of 1.2 percentage points. At present, we estimate that this year, as the first complete year of the implementation of the "Water Ten Articles", it should be said that it has achieved a good start, and the annual target set by the "Water Ten Articles" is expected to be completed on the whole.
Ying Zhao residents further pointed out that although the quality of water environment has been continuously improved through the efforts of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, there is still a big gap compared with the people’s growing environmental demand. The prevention and control of water pollution is unbalanced, and the phenomenon of ecological destruction in river basins is still relatively common at present. It should be said that non-point source pollution has not been effectively curbed, some tributaries are seriously polluted, some lakes are eutrophic, the carrying capacity of water environment has reached or approached the upper limit, and many rivers and ditches flowing through towns are "black and smelly", which has been strongly reflected by the masses.
Zhao Yingmin also introduced three characteristics of the national water environment. First, the surface water quality is generally stable and getting better, but some water pollution problems are outstanding. Second, the situation of good water protection is grim. Third, the main pollution factors have differentiated. In the 12th Five-Year Plan, the binding index COD has declined, but the nitrogen and phosphorus are changing. Because the chemical oxygen demand has dropped a lot, relatively speaking, the pollutants that were originally in the second and third places have gradually become prominent pollution problems in some waters.
He said that the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" clearly put forward the goal and overall thinking by 2020. In the next step, the Ministry of Environmental Protection will insist on improving the quality of water environment as the core, take the implementation of the "Ten Water Articles" as the starting point, and conscientiously implement the tasks specified in the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan". First, adhere to the problem orientation and solve the outstanding water pollution problem that the masses are most concerned about and strongly reflect. "1+2" work priorities. "1" is to pay close attention to the safety of drinking water. "2" starts from both good water and poor water. The so-called good water is a class III or above water body that has not been polluted at present, and protection should be strengthened; Poor water is the so-called "black and smelly" water body, which is inferior to Class V water body, and we should also pay close attention to treatment. The second is to do a good job in source prevention and strictly observe the red line of total space access. The third is to highlight key areas and strengthen governance measures. The fourth is to innovate management methods and improve the management ability of water environment quality. The fifth is to strictly implement the responsibilities of local and enterprises.
Ying Zhao residents further indicated that the water environment quality in China is improving year by year. It should be said that the improvement of environmental quality is supported by a large number of specific pollution control work. For example, in the past five years, the total discharge of chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen in China has decreased by 12.9% and 13%, and the daily sewage treatment capacity of cities and towns in China has increased by 57 million tons. Now the sewage treatment capacity of cities and towns in China has reached 182 million tons, making it one of the countries with the largest sewage treatment capacity in the world. There is still a lot of work, which supports the overall improvement of the water environment quality in the country, although the situation is still grim. Environmental protection inspectors found problems, and in some places, some sections of water quality deteriorated and rebounded, but there is no contradiction between the overall improvement of the country and the local deterioration.
He emphasized that this plan is very clear, and water environment protection should focus on water resources, water environment and water ecology, and the three should be comprehensively considered and treated to implement that "landscape, forest, field and lake are a community of life". In fact, water pollution control is manifested in water, but many problems still come from the shore, so it is necessary to form a systematic whole between water and land. Environmental management should also be managed in accordance with the objective laws of river basins, and refined management should be implemented, so as to implement the requirements of the 13 th Five-Year Plan and realize the protection of water resources, water environment and water ecology.