Xiangzhou District, Zhuhai

Strict controls are demanded in the Zhuhai City 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) for Environmental Protection & Ecological Construction which has just been issued, according to the Environmental Protection Bureau. 

Environmental quality will be improved and pollution controls expanded for the atmosphere, water, and soil. The plan cites 20 indicators targeting drinking water sources, eliminating malodorous black rivers, and ensuring air and soil environment quality. 

The score of indicators, 10 concerning environmental quality, seven about total quantity control, and three related to environmental infrastructure, are to meet requirements by 2020. Indicators closely related to people’s livelihood include that the number of days with at least second-grade air quality in a year should reach 93 percent; annual mean concentrations of Particulate Matter (PM2.5) should be lower than 28 micrograms per cubic meter; quality of the centralized drinking water supply source and offshore sea area water quality should completely meet standards; over 85 percent of surface water quality should reach Category III or above; and surface water below Category-V standard and malodorous black water in urban built-up areas are to be eliminated. 

Severe environmental protection at hand. [Photo courtesy hbzhan.com]

By 2020, Zhuhai’s principal pollutants discharge should drop continuously whereas ambient air quality should gradually improve to the national Grade-2 standard. In the meantime, water quality should be enhanced and soil quality should be stabilized, with ecosystem stability further upheld, environmental risks under control, and supervision of the environment strongly reinforced. As a result, environmental governance will be modernized, ecological civilization mechanism improved, and quality of the ecology will be obvious to everyone. 

The plan requires that pollution controls be intensified and the environment bettered. An ecological red line should also be defined and environment risk warnings posted. The plan also calls for human-nature coexistence, reform of mechanisms to improve environmental protection, and a market system to promote the environmental protection industry.