Green Echo from the Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River —— Investigation on Chongqing’s Demonstration Role in Promoting the Green Development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt
[Chongqing Play "Three Functions" Research Bank]
In ancient Chongqing, there were 17 gates with nine openings and eight closures, and the open gates were arranged in turn. Except for the remote gate leading to the land, the other eight gates were connected to the riverside wharf.
This is a city that thrives on water.
From the map, the Yangtze River rushes all the way from Tanggula Mountain, drawing an upward diagonal line in Chongqing, surging nearly 700 kilometers.
The Yangtze River, which has flowed for hundreds of millions of years, has coexisted with the mountain city of Chongqing for more than 3,000 years, deeply shaping the city.
There are many sails on the river, boats are shuttling, docks along the river are densely packed, and people are weaving. From the commodity distribution center in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in the Qing Dynasty, to the busy merchants after the opening of the port in 1891, and to the establishment of the status of a heavy industrial city during the Anti-Japanese War, the river gave this city built on the mountain an extraordinary development opportunity.
Nowadays, the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt has become a national strategy, and "jointly protecting and not developing" has become the fundamental follow-up to deal with the relationship between protection and development. In the path of ecological priority and green development, Chongqing, the shining pearl in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, is writing the answers of this generation towards the future in the face of mission, responsibility and opportunity.
Chongqing’s mission of "giving play to the demonstration role of the green development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt"
In people’s usual impression, Chongqing is a heavy industry city.
The pillar industries represented by laptops and automobiles highlight the positioning of this city. However, the ecological status of Chongqing is also extremely important.
Chongqing is known as the last pass of the ecological barrier in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, guarding the Three Gorges reservoir area. Whether the ecological environment in Chongqing is good or not and whether the ecological barrier is built firmly is related to the conservation of 35% fresh water resources in the country and the drinking water safety of more than 300 million people in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
General Secretary of the Supreme Leader has always attached importance to Chongqing’s ecological environment. In January 2016, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader visited Chongqing and proposed to "make Chongqing a beautiful place". In April 2019, the General Secretary of the Supreme Leader visited Chongqing again, pointing out that Chongqing should "play an exemplary role in promoting the green development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt", and the general secretary’s earnest entrustment guided the direction and pace of Chongqing’s green development.
The word "demonstration" is both a trust and a spur.
Chongqing’s green development path is quite exemplary. Chongqing is located in the transition zone between the second and third steps of China geography, and its ecological resources are both rich and fragile. Chongqing is one of the six old industrial bases in China, which integrates "big cities, big countryside, big mountainous areas and big reservoir areas". Like Wuhan, Nanjing, Shanghai and other cities in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Chongqing is facing the task and pressure of transforming and upgrading traditional industries into high-quality industries. At the same time, as a highly sensitive area of ecological environment, Chongqing, located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, must constantly strengthen its "upstream consciousness", shoulder its "upstream responsibility", embody its "upstream level", comprehensively implement the new development concept, regard ecology as a "priority" for development, and further strengthen the ecological protection and restoration of the Yangtze River.
"In terms of the importance and difficulty of Chongqing’s ecological status, Chongqing’s high-quality green development and transformation experience is more meaningful for middle and lower reaches cities to replicate and promote than other cities," said Professor Sun Lingyu from the Party School of Chongqing Municipal Committee.
Chongqing also has its own confidence in undertaking the word "demonstration".
Chongqing has the golden waterway of the Yangtze River, and the four open channels in the southeast and northwest supported by the China-Europe train (Chongqing), the new land-sea channel, the "Chongqing-Manchuria-Russia" train and the Chongqing-Ningbo train are fully formed, with land and water dependence and convenient transportation. Chongqing is also rich in fresh water resources, mineral resources with large reserves and various types, numerous tourism resources and abundant agricultural biological resources, which are the icing on the cake for Chongqing’s green development. At the same time, Chongqing also has the largest electronic information industry cluster in the world and the largest automobile industry cluster in China, with a solid industrial base.
Taking advantage of the right time, the right place and the right people, Chongqing has started to promote industrial development from heavy to light, pollution prevention from light to heavy, and ecological construction from point to surface. In industrial layout, it has turned more attention to big data intelligence, eco-environmental protection, biomedicine, cultural leisure tourism and other industries, and pushed the industrial structure to the middle and high-end level. We can see that Chongqing is exploring the high-quality development path of transformation and upgrading based on its own positioning and advantages.
Chongqing’s responsibility of "jointly protecting and not developing"
Dealing with the relationship between development and protection is a proposition of the times.
Guangyang Island, located between Tongluo Mountain and Mingyue Mountain in Chongqing, is the largest island in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, surrounded by rivers and inhabited by egrets. It is a unique natural ecological resource in Chongqing. The positioning of this island has undergone several changes.
As early as 2006, Guangyang Island was listed as a key development object, and Chongqing plans to implement "overall planning, overall investment promotion and overall development" here.
With the idea of ecological civilization deeply rooted in people’s hearts, the planning scheme of Guangyang Island is easy to draft. Today, the new orientation of Guangyang Island is "the eye of the Yangtze River and the ecological island of Chongqing". Abandoning the development idea of large-scale development, Chongqing will focus on the ecological restoration of Guangyang Island, and create the idyllic scenery of birds and flowers, and the Yangtze River picture of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
The Implementation Plan for the Planning of Guangyang Island Area in 2019 was issued and implemented. The mayor of Chongqing served as the leader of the leading group for the green development demonstration construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in Guangyang Island Area, and the deputy mayor served as the director of the leading group office — — Chongqing is determined to protect this green color in the center of the Yangtze River.
The existing form of an island is connected with the general trend of the country.
The general trend, follow the trend. Chongqing puts ecological protection and green development in a more important position, meets the challenge with a brand-new concept, and carries out the ecological protection work to the end.
Under the deep ditch cliff, a blue pool is hidden under the blue sky and white clouds, which makes people feel like they are in a paradise. It is hard for the surrounding residents to believe that it was an abandoned quarry three years ago.
In 2018, Chongqing launched a pilot project for ecological protection and restoration of lakes and grasses in national landscapes. They explored innovative mine ecological restoration models, and introduced a trading method for reclamation indicators of abandoned mines left over from history. After ecological restoration, abandoned mines can be traded as land tickets to attract social capital to invest in mine ecological restoration.
In addition, Chongqing has expanded the function of ecological land tickets. After the construction land in important ecological functional areas such as nature reserves is reclaimed into forest land, after the trees reach the standard, a "forest ticket" can be formed for secondary trading. The organic combination of land ticket and forest ticket promotes the appreciation of ecological restoration achievements.
In response to pollution sources, Chongqing has made an all-round attack and frequently made "new tricks".
Before 2015, more than 800 township sewage treatment plants were built in Chongqing. However, due to many construction management subjects and unreasonable process selection, many treatment plants are difficult to operate, or the treated water quality is not up to standard at all. Some people laughed and said that these sewage treatment plants "bask in the sun during the day and shine on the moon at night".
"I’m from Jiangsu, from downstream to upstream. My family is still in Jiangsu. What will my family do if the upstream is polluted? From public to private, we must do a good job in green development. " Qian Zhongming, who has been dealing with sewage in Chongqing for a long time, confessed to reporters.
In order to completely solve the problem of rural sewage discharge, Chongqing established an environmental protection investment and financing platform — — Chongqing Environmental Protection Investment Group Co., Ltd. is responsible for the investment, construction and operation and maintenance of township sewage treatment plants. Qian Zhongming was transferred from Chongqing Ecological Environment Bureau to Chongqing Huantou as the chairman. They have carried out functional recovery and process improvement on township sewage treatment plants with backward technology and long-term shutdown, and built new treatment plants in places with insufficient treatment facilities.
On one occasion, Qian Zhongming went to Qiantang Town, Hechuan District, Chongqing and saw an old lady washing vegetables by the river ditch. He asked, is this water clean? The old lady said that it used to be washed with tap water, but now the water is clear and clean. Wash it in the river first, and then go home and wash it with tap water. At that moment, Qian Zhongming felt that his work was particularly meaningful.
Green development, transformation and upgrading, we see a heavy industry city trying to turn around.
Promote the autopilot test of unmanned vehicles, and autopilot companies such as Baidu, FAW and Dongfeng come here. The future technology represented by driverless driving is making the automobile industry more green and intelligent, and also making the industrial background of Chongqing more green.
Chongqing’s name also appeared at the just-concluded 6th world internet conference (Wuzhen Summit), becoming one of the first experimental zones of digital economy innovation and development in China.
"Grasping great protection and not engaging in great development does not mean not developing, but not engaging in destructive development, and exploring new ways to promote ecological priority and green development in coordination." Sheng Wang, vice president of Chongqing Academy of Social Sciences, said that Chongqing is on this new road.
In 2018, the water quality of the Chongqing section of the Yangtze River was generally excellent. Moreover, Chongqing has made the exit water quality better than the entry water quality.
As Qian Zhongming said, "Leave green mountains and green rivers, and there will definitely be opportunities in the future". Like many people, he is full of confidence in the future of Chongqing.
Chongqing practice of "planning a domain from the overall situation and serving the overall situation with a domain"
Only when you stand high can you see far, and only when you have a big vision can you have a big pattern. Chongqing, located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, requires itself to have "upstream consciousness" and "upstream responsibility" and "plan a domain from the overall situation and serve the overall situation with a higher and more forward-looking vision".
In the green development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, Chongqing people strive to be ahead, to be ahead, and to be "pioneers" and "pioneers". Adhere to the coordination of the upper, middle and lower reaches, promote the coordinated development of areas along the line, and promote the formation of the overall synergy of the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. This "upstream responsibility" is a kind of innovation and openness, and it is a kind of co-construction and sharing.
On the huge screen, an information box pops up automatically, showing that there is burning smoke somewhere; The system automatically feeds back the information to the grid staff nearby, and the grid staff immediately rushed to the scene for disposal to prevent the smoke pollution from expanding. This is a grid monitoring and early warning system for air pollution prevention and control in Beibei District of Chongqing. Through the AI intelligent identification system of pollution sources, pollution sources are accurately captured and disposed of immediately. This early warning system is the result of studying in Beibei District. They will further innovate and plan to deeply integrate the online monitoring and supervision of key exhaust emission enterprises with the grid supervision system.
"Your site is the one with the best processing effect and operation and maintenance management I have ever seen." This is the praise of the responsible person of Shanghai Water Affairs Bureau for an environmental protection enterprise in Chongqing, which is the affirmation of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River to the upper reaches. Environmental protection technology from Chongqing in the upper reaches landed in Shanghai in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
In 2017, local enterprises in Chongqing went as far as environmental protection, signed a cooperation agreement with Chongming District Government of Shanghai to give full play to their technological advantages in the field of energy conservation and environmental protection, and participated in decentralized sewage treatment and natural ecological water landscape construction in local rural areas. They built a sewage treatment demonstration site in Chongming, Shanghai, and the effluent quality reached Grade A standard stably, and local farmers applauded. The project was awarded "Excellent Case of Sewage Treatment in Villages and Towns in 2019" by China Water Network, and became a model of agricultural sewage treatment along the Yangtze River Economic Belt.
Chongqing takes the role of "upstream", pushing the pursuit of green technology to the extreme, and pushing it to the upper and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
Lin Huirong’s work can be described in one word — — Turn crisis into safety and turn waste into use. "There are many chemical enterprises in Chongqing, and the chemical industry is a big producer of hazardous waste. If hazardous waste is not properly treated and dumped, it will cause serious harm to water, atmosphere, human life and health. "
His new Zhongtian Environmental Protection Co., Ltd. is also the national environmental protection hazardous waste disposal engineering technology (Chongqing) center. A private enterprise can get the brand of National Engineering Technology Center, behind which is the unremitting pursuit of technology research and development. Their rotary kiln incineration technology of hazardous waste slag has not only solved the centralized disposal of more than 40 kinds of hazardous wastes such as waste organic solvents and waste paint slag in Chongqing, but also been applied in the Yangtze River Economic Belt provinces such as Sichuan, Jiangxi, Jiangsu and Zhejiang to help them achieve green development together.
Many technologies of Chongqing environmental protection enterprises in flue gas desulfurization and denitrification, garbage incineration power generation, urban sewage treatment, hazardous waste disposal, automobile exhaust purification, environmental monitoring instrument manufacturing and other fields have been included in the national key environmental protection practical technology list, which is at the leading level in China. These green technologies represent the "upstream" pursuit of Chongqing, and they serve the whole Yangtze River Economic Belt and even the whole of China.
Chongqing’s experience is becoming a national standard, leading the industry towards standardization and green. For example, Yuanda Environmental Protection has achieved a lot in the treatment of coal-fired flue gas, and accordingly presided over and participated in the compilation of 25 national standards and industry standards for the treatment of coal-fired flue gas pollution; The National Environmental Protection Hazardous Waste Disposal Engineering Technology (Chongqing) Center is participating in the national standard "Technical Requirements for Vitrification Products of Solid Waste" led by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, which will realize the recycling of hazardous waste disposal and improve the management norms of hazardous waste disposal sites.
Chongqing, which adheres to the spirit of "upstream", is stepping out of the upstream, embracing people from upstream and downstream, and working together to protect the Yangtze River.
In December 2018, the environmental protection industry associations of 11 provinces and cities and 5 sub-provincial cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt signed a framework agreement on the coordinated development mechanism of eco-environmental industries in Chongqing, established a dialogue, consultation and unified action mechanism, and put their own development into the overall situation of coordinated development to jointly promote the green development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.
In January 2019, Chongqing and Hunan Province formally signed a compensation agreement on the compensation mechanism for horizontal ecological protection in the Youshui River Basin. According to the principle of "whoever pollutes, compensates, protects and benefits", if the water quality of Youshui meets or exceeds the national assessment target, the downstream Hunan Province will allocate compensation to Chongqing; If the water quality is lower than the national assessment target, Chongqing, which is in the upper reaches, will allocate compensation to Hunan Province.
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Chongqing in the upper reaches is becoming a bridge, which deeply connects the green development and ecological cooperation in the upper and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. "Chongqing is at the last pass in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, which is of great significance to the upstream and downstream driving and coordinated development. Let’s live together, one will die, and the whole game will live. " Sheng Wang said.(Reporter Shang Wenchao, Chen Haibo, Zhang Guosheng, academic guidance of this group: Pan Jiahua, member of China Academy of Social Sciences and director of the Institute of Urban Development and Environment of China Academy of Social Sciences)