East China's Anhui and Zhejiang provinces signed an agreement on June 5 in Hefei city – Anhui's capital – to boost cross-regional cooperation for the construction of the Xin'an River-Qiandao Lake ecological protection compensation model area.
The accord marks a major upgrade of the first-of-its-kind watershed ecological compensation agreement in China, after three rounds of pilot programs.
The Xin'an River runs from Anhui province into Zhejiang province and the cross-region mechanism was originally introduced by the two provinces in 2012.
Under the system, the water that flows from Anhui to Zhejiang is subject to periodic assessments.
If the quality reaches agreed standards, Zhejiang compensates Anhui for expenses incurred to protect the environment. Otherwise, Zhejiang is compensated to subsidize its additional costs to treat polluted water.
An impressive panorama of a section of the Xin'an River in Huangshan city. [Photo by Zheng Hong/WeChat ID: gh_0c73ab80fdea]
Huangshan city in Anhui province, home to over 60 percent of the Xin'an River, has played a critical role in the project. The city has invested 54.5 million yuan ($7.6 million) to build 42 automatic water quality monitoring stations, shut down 220 polluting companies and relocated another 110 businesses.
What's more, the forest coverage rate in Huangshan city has increased from 77.4 percent to 82.9 percent, while the water quality has remained at or above the Grade II level for many years, which means that people are now able to take water directly from the river for drinking.
Last year, Huangshan city ranked 4th out of 168 key cities in terms of ambient air quality, with an average concentration of PM2.5 – a key metric of heavy pollutants – at 19 micrograms per cubic meter, the best level on record.