Taking comprehensive measures to control water pollution in the Yellow River and ensure the safety of drinking water has become the primary task of water resources management and protection in the Yellow River. At present, many rivers and waters in China have become dumping sites for waste, which has seriously damaged the water function of rivers and unbalanced the ecosystem. Water is a renewable resource, and the changes of surface water, groundwater and air water in the ecosystem constitute a complete water cycle. Once any link of this cycle is polluted, the whole water circulation system will be destroyed. Polluted water will inevitably pose a threat to the water cycle and the safety of human drinking water. We can make an image metaphor. If we discharge a pollutant into the environment, it is very likely that the same pollutant will also flow out of our faucet. To a certain extent, protecting water resources means protecting our living environment, and keeping the water source clean is also the basic condition for maintaining the health of the Yellow River.
Reporter: How difficult is it to protect the water resources and river ecology of the Yellow River?
Lianyu: This work is very arduous, which is determined by the basic characteristics of the Yellow River Basin. The population pressure in the Yellow River basin is high, and the carrying capacity of water resources and water environment is low. The contradiction between human survival, social development and ecological protection in the Yellow River basin will exist for a long time and will affect the protection of water resources and water environment for a long time. Therefore, we should have a clear understanding of the arduousness of ecological and water environmental protection of the Yellow River. When formulating the long-term protection task of water functional areas scientifically, the Yellow River provincial boundary and drinking water protection should be the focus of recent work.
Reporter: What measures should be taken to ensure the safety of drinking water in the Yellow River?
Lianyu: To achieve the goal of ensuring the safety of drinking water in the Yellow River, comprehensive measures can only be taken.
First of all, we should improve the water laws and standards system in China and the Yellow River. The state should define the protection scope of drinking water source protection areas, coordinate administrative duties and departmental work, the principles of water resources development and utilization, and the requirements of economic development and ecological protection; Formulate and promulgate the Yellow River Law as soon as possible to protect the water resources of the Yellow River according to law and provide legal guarantee for ensuring the safety of drinking water in the Yellow River; It is necessary to improve the relevant standards for drinking water protection.
Secondly, we should build a resource-saving and environment-friendly society. Over the years, the Yellow River Basin has neglected the constraints of environmental pollution and ecological destruction on the coordinated development of economy and society, and a large number of construction projects with high resource consumption, low technical level and high pollution output have been repeatedly constructed, resulting in increasingly prominent resource loss, ecological destruction and environmental problems in the basin. Governments at all levels in the river basin should further establish and implement the Scientific Outlook on Development in economic construction and water resources management, strengthen the government's management of resource utilization, protection and allocation, and build a resource-saving and environment-friendly society.
Third, we must earnestly strengthen water pollution control and environmental protection supervision. At present, the stable compliance rate of sewage outlets that directly discharge pollutants into the main stream of the Yellow River is less than 50%. The reasons are as follows: first, the pollution control cost of enterprises is much higher than the production cost, and the pollution control facilities of enterprises exist in name only; Second, the current environmental supervision is weak, and the warning effect of environmental administrative punishment is extremely limited; Third, local protectionism is serious.
The fourth is to form a cooperative mechanism of "joint pollution control" between water conservancy and environmental protection departments. Water conservancy and environmental protection departments should make unified planning and monitoring of water resources and water environmental protection in river basins, realize the sharing of basic information of management and monitoring, and establish a water environmental protection system and working mechanism that combines river basin and regional management and water conservancy and environmental protection management.
Fifth, establish a sound management system for water functional areas. The water administrative department shall strengthen the supervision and management of the use of pollution capacity in river waters and limit the total discharge of pollutants into the river. River basin management agencies should supervise and verify the tasks of pollution source control and total pollutant emission reduction control in the provinces (regions) of the river basin, strive to achieve a fundamental improvement in the quality of water resources at the provincial boundaries of key waters, and effectively control and improve the deterioration of river basin pollution. Establish a cross-provincial (regional) water quality responsibility assessment system in the Yellow River Basin, and incorporate it into the responsibility assessment of the main administrative heads of local governments.
Sixth, rebuild the ecological balance of the Yellow River. Ensuring the ecological balance of rivers is an important basis for maintaining and improving the water purification capacity of rivers. It is an important experience of river protection in the world to carry out the construction of river basin ecology and sewage land treatment system on the basis of reaching the standard of pollution sources. It is suggested that Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan and other conditional provinces and regions should build the ecological restoration plan of the Yellow River on the premise of ensuring flood control safety, based on key industrial pollution sources and urban sewage treatment, and in accordance with the requirements of river management by land, so as to effectively reduce and control the pollution entering the river and ensure the water quality safety of the Yellow River source area.