Xinhua News Agency, Hohhot, September 10th: Comprehensive management of Wuliangsuhai to restore the glory of the “Pearl Beyond the Great Wall”
Xinhua News Agency reporter Gao Jing
The reeds sway in the wind and are dyed golden by the autumn wind; water birds chirp and sing, or swim on the water or soar in the sky… Wuliangsuhai in autumn is full of vitality and the scenery is pleasant.
A few days ago, the reporter came to Bayannur City, Inner Mongolia with the China Environmental Protection Century Tour 2023 promotional event interview team and saw such a picturesque scenery.
Wuliangsuhai is located at the top of the “Several Bends” of the Yellow River. It is the largest lake wetland in the Yellow River Basin and enjoys the reputation of “Pearl Beyond the Great Wall”. In the past few years, this “pearl” was once eclipsed.
Cao Tieshan, 53 years old, is a native of the city and has witnessed the transformation of Wuliangsuhai from a lake of clear water to serious pollution and is now gradually recovering.
“More than 20 years ago, when we were fishing in Wuliangsuhai, we only brought dry food with us, not water. When we were thirsty, we drank the water from Wuliangsuhai directly,” he recalled.
Wuliang Suhai is the only “discharge receiving area” in the Hetao Irrigation District. Since the 1990s, a large amount of farmland water in the Hetao Irrigation Area and urban domestic sewage and industrial wastewater have entered Wuliangsuhai, causing the quality of Wuliangsuhai to deteriorate year by year. In 2008, a large area of ”yellow moss” broke out in the Wuliangsuhai Lake area, and the water quality once deteriorated to worse than Class V.
“When the pollution is serious, the lake water is soy sauce color and has a strong odor. There are fewer and fewer fish in the lake, and there are also fewer birds.” Cao Tieshan said that some tourists come here because of its reputation, but leave disappointed. Some local people engaged in fishing, tourism, etc. also want to make a living elsewhere.
Bao Wei, director of the Wuliang Suhai Ecological Protection Center, said that from 2008 to 2018, the local area implemented a number of projects to improve the ecological environment, but the effect of “treating a headache and treating a sore foot” was not obvious.
A systemic turnaround occurred in 2018. Bayannur City invited experts to take stock and prescribe a treatment system for Wuliang Suhai. The local government has determined the idea of governance, treating the mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grass and sand in the Wuliangsuhai Basin as a community of life, coordinating and promoting ecological restoration, comprehensive management, protection and development of the entire basin, and transforming from simply “governing lakes” to systematically “governing watersheds.”
Scientific planning and prescribing the right medicine. In the Ulan Bhe Desert in the upper reaches of the basin, a national comprehensive demonstration zone for desertification prevention and control and a China-Israel (Bayannur) Desertification Prevention and Control Ecological Park have been built to prevent sediment from flowing into the Yellow River and eroding the Hetao Plain.
Around the lake area, Bayannur has promoted the ecological restoration of Wula Mountain and the natural restoration of Urad Grassland.
Bao Wei said: “Wuliangsuhai has taken over most of the farmland dewatering in the Hetao Irrigation Area, and it is very critical to control agricultural non-point source pollution in the Hetao Irrigation Area.” The local area has comprehensively carried out the “four controls and two modernizations” of agriculture (fertilizer control, pesticide control, water control, Film control, harmless treatment of livestock and poultry manure and resource utilization of straw) actions have guided and promoted green agricultural production, achieved negative growth in the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and effectively controlled farmland irrigation water consumption.
In order to reduce pollution in towns and industrial parks, Bayannur City promotes the construction of sewage treatment plants, recycled water plants and pipe networks to fully tap the potential of reclaimed water reuse. At present, local industrial wastewater does not enter Wuliangsuhai. The reclaimed water reuse rate of urban sewage has exceeded 40%. The remaining sewage must be purified in artificial wetlands and then enter Wuliangsuhai through drainage ditches at all levels.
In Wuliangsuhai Lake District, a series of endogenous treatment measures are also being implemented and bearing fruit.
The reporter learned from the interview that in the depths of the lake area, patches of reeds are a paradise for birds to inhabit, and they are also the basis for the development of the local reed industry. But the lush reeds once became a difficulty in the management of Wuliangsuhai.
“In places with a lot of reeds, hydrodynamic conditions are relatively poor. When the temperature rises, the risk of water quality deterioration is greater.” Bao Wei said.
Running water does not rot. To solve this problem, the local government dug more than 180 kilometers of grid waterways in the reed area to allow the lake water to flow and reduce the risk of water quality deterioration.
In recent years, the local area has also diverted water from the Yellow River to provide ecological water supply to Wuliangsuhai and improve the water quality of the lake area. In the five years from 2018 to 2022, the annual ecological water replenishment will be about 600 million cubic meters.
Whether the ecology is good or not, the birds know first. The effects of integrated protection and systematic management of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grass and sand are gradually emerging. Currently, there are about 260 species of birds and more than 20 species of fish in Wuliangsuhai. The water quality of the main state-controlled sections in the lake area has basically reached Category IV, the degree of eutrophication of the water body has gradually declined, and the “Pearl Beyond the Great Wall” is regaining its glory.
“The ecological environment of Wuliangsuhai is getting better step by step. The number of tourists is gradually increasing, and our lives are getting better and better!” Cao Tieshan said happily. In the past few years, he and others jointly bought a sailboat for tourism, and this summer he can receive tourists in one day From two to three hundred tourists, the income is very considerable.
Be consistent and achieve success over time. Bao Wei said that in the future, we will continue to promote various governance measures in Wuliangsuhai, and continue to cooperate with domestic scientific research institutes to further strengthen scientific research on governance technologies and governance measures. “We must manage Wuliangsuhai well and carefully protect this ‘pearl beyond the Great Wall’.” (End)