New Program to Keep Yangtze River Clean

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 ◆ New Program to Keep Yangtze River Clean

Chinese experts have divided the Yangtze River and some rivers in the southwest into more than 1,000 functional regions and mapped out a new water resources protection plan on this basis.

They believe this will be proven an efficient and cost-effective plan.

Under the new plan, the Yangtze River valley and that of southwestern rivers, such as Yarlung Zangbo, Nujiang and Lancang rivers have been divided into 681 Class One functional regions and 602 Class Two functional regions.

The areas under the plan cover a total of 2.6 million square kilometers, or more than a quarter of the country's land area. Water resources are the richest in these areas.

Yuan Hongren, deputy director of water resources protection bureau under the Yangtze River Water Resources Committee, said in Class One functional regions, efforts will be focused on protecting water resources and the ecological environment.

The work in these areas will be under unified management of the committee, which will improve the efficient in water resources protection and be beneficial for raising fund for local infrastructure construction, the official said.

Yuan said that in the Class Two functional regions, priority will be given to protection of water sources for drinking and industrial, agricultural and fishery use, as well as that for tourism and drainage control.

He said more money will be put in build waste control facilities to protect the quality of drinkable water at the sources.

This plan, which sets different drainage control standards for water regions of different functions, is drawn out after decades of experience in harnessing rivers, and is the most practical one at present, Yuan said.
The plan will ensure that the limited fund will be used where it is needed most, the official said.