Beside the Danjiangkou Reservoir, a group of people turned from sand miners to environmental protection volunteers

In the early morning, the clearing boat was slowly driving in Yunyang in the upper reaches of the Han River in the Danjiangkou Reservoir Area of Shiyan City, Hubei Province. Xiao Anshan, captain of the Hanjiang River clearing and drifting team, stared at the water and salvaged the floating objects he encountered on the boat. "We are cleaning up floating objects that washed into the reservoir area." Xiao Anshan said that he used to be engaged in fishing and sand mining in the reservoir area, but now he has become an environmental volunteer.

As many people transform from sand miners to environmental protection volunteers, the environment in the Danjiangkou Reservoir Area continues to improve, reflecting the historic achievements in my country's ecological civilization construction and major steps taken in the construction of Beautiful China.

Since the founding of New China 75 years ago, my country has continued to explore coordinating economic development and ecological and environmental protection, and comprehensive management of the ecological and environmental environment has continued to achieve new results. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has regarded the construction of ecological civilization as a fundamental plan related to the sustainable development of the Chinese nation, and has carried out a series of fundamental, groundbreaking and long-term work. Our country has a bluer sky and a greener land, clearer water, and more colorful rivers and mountains.

Deeply advance the three major battles to defend blue sky, clear water and pure land, and continue to improve the quality of the ecological environment

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "A good ecological environment is the fairest public good and the most universally beneficial people's livelihood and well-being."

"We grew up drinking water from the reservoir area, and we all wanted to use our own modest efforts to protect the water in our hometown." Xiao Anshan recalled that in the past few years, various infrastructure construction had a large demand for sand and gravel. Some people made a living by sand mining, but caused damage to the ecological environment in the reservoir area.

In 2019, the local government cleared up "three no" sand mining ships and standardized sand mining behavior. Wang Weichang, the relevant person in charge of the Yunyang District Water Conservancy and Lakes Bureau, said that Yunyang District has prepared a series of plans to achieve "ID card"-type supervision of sand and gravel mining and transportation, and sand mining is more scientific. In addition, in order to protect water well, Shiyan City has more than 300 volunteer water protection teams, with 850,000 registered volunteers.

Not just in Shiyan City. In recent years, all regions and departments have persisted in fighting the battle against pollution, deeply advancing the three major battles of defense of blue sky, clear water and pure land, and the quality of the ecological environment has continued to improve.

Continue to implement the air pollution prevention and control action plan, the three-year action plan to win the battle to defend blue skies, and the action plan for continuous improvement of air quality, adjust and optimize the structure of industry, energy, transportation, and land use... In 2023, PM in key cities across the country_2.5The average concentration of (fine particulate matter) is 30 micrograms/cubic meter, and the proportion of cities that meet the air quality standards is about 60%.

We will further promote the protection and management of major rivers and important lakes, and further promote the comprehensive management of key sea areas. More and more rivers and lakes have clear waters and green shores. In 2023, the proportion of sections with excellent surface water quality (Class I-III) across the country will reach 89.4%, an increase of 27.8 percentage points from 2012. The water quality of the entire Yangtze River mainstream has remained in Class II for four consecutive years and the Yellow River mainstream has remained in Class II for two consecutive years.

Adhere to prevention first, risk management and control, and joint water and soil management, implement prevention and control actions at the source of soil pollution, comprehensively ban the entry of "foreign garbage", and achieve the goal of "zero import" of solid waste. The safe use of contaminated cultivated land and key construction land across the country has been effectively guaranteed, and the rural domestic sewage treatment (control) rate has reached more than 45%, making the people feel more at ease.

Adhere to the integrated protection and systematic management of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grass and sand

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "We must persist in supporting high-quality development with high-level protection and build a solid national ecological security barrier."

It is crystal clear and shaped like a peach blossom. Peach blossom jellyfish have been found again in the Danjiangkou Reservoir Area recently. Peach blossom jellyfish have strict requirements on the living environment and have appeared in the reservoir area many times, which is evidence of the continued improvement of the quality of the ecological environment.

The improvement of the ecological environment in the Danjiangkou Reservoir Area is inseparable from Shiyan City's insistence on integrated protection and systematic management of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grass and sand. According to reports, 67% of the city's area is divided into ecological protection red line areas and biodiversity protection red line areas in water conservation areas. The management system for river lengths and branch ditches at the city, county, township and village levels has been continuously improved, with 2489 large and small rivers equipped with "stewards".

High-level protection is an important support for high-quality development. All regions and departments support high-quality development with high-level protection and coordinate the promotion of high-quality development and high-level protection.

Creatively proposing an ecological protection red line system, my country has included areas with extremely important ecological functions, extremely fragile ecology, and potentially important ecological value into the ecological protection red line, realizing a red line to control important ecological spaces. As of now, the land ecological protection red line area accounts for more than 30% of the land area.

The construction of a nature reserve system with national parks as the main body has been accelerated. Our country has officially established the first batch of national parks such as Sanjiangyuan, and established nearly 10,000 nature reserves at all levels and types, 90% of terrestrial ecosystem types and 74% of national key protected wild animal and plant species are effectively protected.

Adhering to the integrated protection and systematic management of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grass and sand, my country has coordinated the implementation of 52 integrated protection and restoration projects of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grass and sand in the "three districts and four belts" national ecological security barrier, with a cumulative ecological protection, restoration and management area exceeding 100 million acres. my country's forest coverage rate has reached 24.02%, making it the country with the largest growth in forest resources and the largest artificial afforestation area in the world.

Focus on building a green, low-carbon circular economic system

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized: "Through high-level environmental protection, we will continue to shape new driving forces and new advantages for development, and strive to build a green, low-carbon circular economic system."

Xiao Anshan introduced that every time a boat is filled with floating objects, it must be transported to a centralized treatment station and transported away by a special garbage truck. In August this year, the cleaning team welcomed the third cleaning vessel. "The new cleaning ship adopts an automated operation mode and is equipped with an efficient garbage collection and treatment system, reducing secondary pollution to the environment." Xiao Anshan said that the local government has established a garbage collection, transportation and treatment system of "household classification, village collection, town transfer, and municipal treatment" to achieve rapid treatment of garbage cleared in the reservoir area.

Protecting a reservoir of clear water changes Shiyan's production and lifestyle. At present, Shiyan City has closed 560 enterprises above designated size, eliminated more than 3 million tons of cement, steel, pulp and other production capacity, and refused to approve more than 100 major projects with high energy consumption and high pollution. At the same time, cultivating green and low-carbon industries and promoting the transformation of the automobile industry into new energy and intelligence, the total investment in new battery projects built, under construction or reserved in the city exceeds 50 billion yuan.

A good ecological environment continues to release green dividends. After the water quality improved, many beverage companies came to Danjiangkou City, Shiyan to invest and build factories. In 2023, the water economic output value of Danjiangkou City will reach 14 billion yuan.

Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, and improving the ecological environment is developing productivity. As of the end of June 2024, the installed capacity of renewable energy has reached 1.653 billion kilowatts, accounting for 53.8% of the total installed capacity; the world's largest and most complete new energy industry chain has been built; in 2023, my country's energy consumption and carbon emission intensity per unit of GDP have dropped by more than 26% and 35% respectively compared with 2012... Green development has become a distinctive background for high-quality development.

People live up to the green mountains, and the green mountains will surely live up to people. Adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, coordinate the promotion of carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion, and growth, and accelerate the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development. We will build a beautiful China with always green mountains, long green waters, and always new air., realize the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.