Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, April 1st, title: The Yellow River Protection Law is officially implemented, China’s “River Strategy” and the rule of law are fully promoted
Xinhua News Agency reporters Zhou Wenqi, Zhang Wenjing, Yang Dingmiao
On April 1, the “Yellow River Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China” came into effect. The Yellow River Protection Law is China’s second river basin law, which was passed by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on October 30, 2022. Previously, China’s first river basin law, the Yangtze River Protection Law, came into effect on March 1, 2021.
The Yellow River Protection Law includes general principles, planning and control, ecological protection and restoration, conservation and intensive use of water resources, water and sediment regulation and flood control safety, pollution prevention and control, promotion of high-quality development, protection and inheritance of the Yellow River culture, guarantee and supervision, legal responsibilities and supplementary provisions etc., with a total of 11 chapters and 122 articles.
The law clarifies that the state strengthens the ecological protection and restoration of the Yellow River Basin, insists on integrated protection and restoration, and implements a systematic governance that focuses on natural restoration and combines natural restoration with artificial restoration; the state strengthens comprehensive governance, systematic governance, and source Governance, promote the comprehensive environmental improvement of key rivers and lakes.
Xiong Zhanglin, a professor at the School of Law of Southeast University, believes that the promulgation and implementation of the Yellow River Protection Law is another landmark measure to comprehensively promote the legalization of the national “river strategy”. Symbiosis and the sustainable development of the Chinese nation are of great significance.
The Yellow River has been weak and sick for a long time. The average annual water resources are less than 7% of the Yangtze River, and its ecology is fragile. The plateau glaciers in the upper reaches, the Loess Plateau in the middle reaches, and the Yellow River Delta in the lower reaches are extremely prone to degradation. Environmental pollution is also serious, and the water quality is generally lower than the national average.
Pan Jiahua, member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and director of the Institute of Ecological Civilization of Beijing University of Technology, said that the Yellow River Protection Law takes water as the core, river as the link, and basin as the basis, and promotes the comprehensive management, system management, and source management of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grass and sand. , paying more attention to the systematicness, integrity, and synergy of protection and governance. The law is oriented to the outstanding difficulties and problems existing in the Yellow River Basin, and has strong pertinence, guarantee, and restraint.
The Yellow River is at peace, and the world is at peace.
This is the sunset scene of the Lanzhou section of the Yellow River taken in Lanzhou City, Gansu Province on March 31. In recent years, Lanzhou City has made great efforts to improve the landscape quality of the Lanzhou section of the Yellow River, and has continuously improved the convenience service facilities.Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Ma Xiping
In Lanzhou, Gansu, where the Yellow River passes through the city, Yang Aizhen, a community-level river chief who grew up by the Yellow River, witnessed the “clean and turbid changes” of the Yellow River: the private buildings along the river disappeared, and the peculiar smell in the river wind disappeared. Now, the scenery beside the embankment is greener, and there are more citizens playing on the river bank.