China News Agency, Bayannaoer, May 10th: China's eighth largest freshwater lake is being reborn, hoping that "soy sauce soup" will return to drinking water
China News Agency reporter Li Aiping
"Uliangsuhai is being reborn." "I believe that one day the lake water here will be drinkable."
On May 9, 52-year-old Liu Wenbin drove a motorboat and chopped waves on the wide waters of Wuliangsuhai.
Passing through a large field of reeds, he saw a few swans flying high, and suddenly said this to the reporter.
Wuliangsuhai is the largest functional wetland in the Yellow River Basin and the eighth largest freshwater lake in China. It undertakes important functions such as regulating the water volume of the Yellow River, protecting biodiversity, and improving the regional climate. It is the "kidney of nature" for the ecological security of the Yellow River.
Liu Wenbin, who is now working in the Wuliangsuhai Wetland Conservation Brigade, Bayannaoer City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region recalled, "From the 1970s to the 1990s, the water in Wuliangsuhai was drinkable. , and then boiled in lake water, it is delicious food."
"But this situation stopped abruptly around 2000. The water quality of Wuliangsuhai began to become turbid. Every spring when the local wind blows, the smell of the lake water is unpleasant, and the color is as unsightly as soy sauce." Liu Wenbin recalled road.
Experts once predicted that "if this lake is not treated, it will disappear in 10 to 20 years".
According to information obtained by a reporter from China News Agency from the General Administration of Hetao Irrigation District in Inner Mongolia (referred to as Hetao Irrigation District in Inner Mongolia), since the 1990s, with the rapid advancement of industrialization and urbanization in the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River, industrial wastewater discharged into Wuliangsuhai , Urban domestic sewage increases year by year, up to 33 million tons per year.
Before 2009, there was only one sewage treatment plant in Linhe District of the seven county-level towns in Bayannaoer City, and the production and domestic sewage in the remaining towns were discharged without treatment, and eventually entered the Wuliangsuhai Sea, causing pollution.
The turning point appeared after 2012. Under the great attention of the Yellow River Water Conservancy Committee of the Ministry of Water Resources of China, many units such as Hetao Irrigation District in Inner Mongolia fully carried out the ecological water replenishment work in Wuliangsuhai.
Bao Wei is the deputy director of the Wuliangsuhai Ecological Protection Center in Bayannaoer City. In an interview with reporters, he admitted frankly, "Since the ecological replenishment, the water quality of the lake here is getting better every day."
According to reports, in recent years, the government has invested a total of 983 million yuan (RMB, the same below) in the endogenous management of the Wuliangsuhai Lake area to implement ecological water replenishment channels, biodiversity protection and other projects; Fishermen go ashore”, a comprehensive ban on illegal breeding in Wuliangsuhai.
Su Yaratu, secretary of the Wulateqian Banner Committee of Bayannaoer City, Inner Mongolia, said that from 2019 to 2021, the ecological water replenishment of Wuliangsuhai will reach 615 million cubic meters, 625 million cubic meters and 598 million cubic meters respectively, and the area of the lake area will be stable at 293 square kilometers.
So far this year, officials have supplied 180.33 million cubic meters of water to the Wuliangsuhai ecosystem.
"Through several years of unremitting efforts, the water quality of Wuliangsuhai has been improved from inferior V to overall V and partial IV, the water body has been improved from mild eutrophication to mesotrophic state, biodiversity has continued to recover, and governance work has achieved phased progress. Results." Suyaratu said.
"Now the water here is clear, and all kinds of rare birds are frequent." Liu Wenbin told reporters that due to the remarkable achievements in the governance of Wuliangsuhai in recent years, he has been interviewed by the media many times, and in a sense has become a witness and spokesperson of this lake. .
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