By Dai Linfeng, People’s Daily
Ecological assessment has brought about drastic changes to urban and rural areas in
China, and Ruijin , Ganzhou in East China’s Jiangxi Province is a great example.
Since the county-level city launched an evaluation system for green development,
scenic spots have become clean and tidy, and the industrial and mining zones are
regulated and transformed, presenting a brand-new look.
Shazhouba township of the city is now covered by lush green. It’s hardly imaginable
that a landfill once existed beside a top scenic spot there, where weeds sprang up and
mosquitoes and flies clustered.
According to Yang Huazhong, the mayor of Shazhouba, in an evaluation conducted
by Ruijin in 2018, the township ranked the seventh in terms of ecological
performance, though its comprehensive performance came in the fourth place.
“Such imbalance indicated that we were really lagged behind in environmental
protection,” Yang said. To address the problem, the town removed all landfills and
invested 30 million yuan ($4.23 million) to improve the environment around scenic
spots.
“Environment, which was a penalty point, has now turned into a bonus point in the
assessment,” Yang told the People’s Daily. Now, open scenic spots have been built in
the township, presenting an integrated view together with local villages. The rural
living environment is taking on a new look.
In 2016, Jiangxi became one of the first tranche of national ecological civilization
pilot zones required to basically establish an evaluation system that presents officials’
performance on green development.
In the same year, the office of the leading group of ecological civilization construction
of Ruijin was set up to lead the environmental assessment work, and officials from 11
government organs were selected as examiners. Under the coordination of the office,
an evaluation system covering protection, restoration and development of mountains,
waters, forests, farmland, lakes and grasslands was formed.
At the end of each year, the office would compile and issue rules and regulations for
the evaluation to relevant parties which then submit their annual work reports to the
office for review. After the first round of review, the evaluation group of the office
would spot check and score.
Jiubao township, which was in the last place among the 17 townships in Ruijin in the
evaluation of 2018, jumped to the sixth a year later.
Behind the figure was a tremendous change. A few years ago, the town was barely
visited by outsiders because its environment was heavily polluted and roads left
ragged by busy mining activities in the Shalong mine. The mine, which started in the
1980s, also led to heavy dust, water pollution and lifted riverbed by accumulation of
sediments.
“We’ll never pass the evaluation if we don’t catch up,” said Lai Zhiyong, mayor of the
township.
Last year, the Shalong mine halted production and went through a transformation. The
town applied for a fund of 3.9 million yuan to improve the water environment and
remove silt from the river. It also fundraised 3.2 million yuan to restore the ecology of
the mountain.
Now, the mountain is covered by different types of green trees, and a hardened road
has been paved. The Shalong mine is also transformed to a shale mine for bricks and
tiles.
The Jiubao people deeply know that it’s not a sustainable approach to sacrifice
environment for economic growth. After the mining site was closed, the town
mobilized villagers to develop green industries.
Zhong Jiuning, a truck driver who had transported mineral ores for the Shalong mine
for more than 10 years, has now got his foot in the door of fruit and cash tree growing.
He and his fellow villagers contracted a piece of land and planted 18.7 hectares of
orange trees and 8 hectares of slash pines on it. The man is quite satisfied with his
new occupation as he doesn’t have to hold the steering wheel from dawn to night any
longer.
Jiubao township is only one place in Ruijin that has undergone remarkable changes in
recent years.
According to a green development index released by Ganzhou, Ruijin has jumped
from the last one to the second place among all the 18 counties and county-level cities
in Ganzhou regarding the proportion of environmental pollution control investment in
GDP.
Xu Rui, secretary of the Ruijin Municipal Party Committee, said to give the people
more sense of happiness, the green development assessment system must be science-
oriented and improved, and the construction of ecological civilization should be
integrated into the entire process of economic and social development.
