Secretly discharging sewage to the source of the south-to-north water diversion will not be tolerated once it is investigated to the end

■ Editorials

For enterprises that have set up hidden pipes for months to secretly discharge wastewater, it is necessary for the local government to investigate to the end and repair the loopholes in the governance chain as soon as possible.

Shiyan City, Hubei Province is the core water source area of Danjiangkou Reservoir, the source of the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, and shoulders the historical mission of protecting the security of national strategic water resources. It originates from the Si River in Maojian District, Shiyan City, flows through many places in Shiyan City, and finally flows into the Danjiangkou Reservoir.

A recent interview by a Voice of China reporter found that at the junction of Maojian District and Danjiangkou City, Shiyan City, through which the Si River flows, some enterprises illegally discharge domestic sewage and production wastewater into the Si River, and there is also a boundary marker of Hubei Shiyan Sihe National Wetland Park next to a sewage outlet, which is only more than 10 kilometers away from the Danjiangkou reservoir area. From the scene, this clandestine practice has been going on for at least several months.

As we all know, the middle line of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project is a major national project, focusing on solving the problem of water shortage in four provinces and cities in Henan, Hebei, Beijing and Tianjin, and providing water for production, life, industry and agriculture for more than 4 large and medium-sized cities along the route, and the starting point of this water supply "lifeline" is the Danjiangkou Reservoir. Because of this, the water quality protection of the Danjiangkou Reservoir cannot be too strict. However, the river section flowing into the reservoir was found to have the phenomenon of enterprises secretly discharging pungent black and odorous sewage in private pipes, which is not bad in nature.

At present, the local environmental protection department has confirmed that the problem of sewage entering the river from the two factories involved is basically true, and the two enterprises have partially stopped production and the drainage behavior has also stopped. However, how this phenomenon occurred, and why the problem of sewage smuggled into the river has not been effectively dealt with by local environmental protection authorities for months, needs to be seriously investigated and an authoritative conclusion given.

According to media investigations, the problem of local sewage being secretly discharged into the river was reported by the public as early as the end of December last year. In early April this year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment came to Shiyan, Hubei Province to investigate the water source area of the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project to carry out ecological and environmental safety work. However, not long after the higher-level environmental protection department left, there was a situation of black and odorous sewage and production wastewater illegally discharging into the Si River.

Videos and images show a shocking sewage discharge site – the river through which sewage flows is filled with white-gray sediment and parts of the Si River are dyed white. But in response to a public complaint in February, the local environmental protection department denied that one of the companies was polluting, saying that the other was not a producer.

Obviously, this response conflicts with the current conclusion that the problem of sewage from the two factories entering the river is basically true. It is necessary, then, to ask, how did this contradictory conclusion come about? It is necessary to investigate the problems behind the problems and fix the loopholes in the governance chain as soon as possible.

As the water source of the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, the water quality of the Danjiangkou Reservoir basin not only affects the domestic water of local people, but also directly affects the water quality and ecological protection level of the coastal areas. In fact, enterprises use hidden pipes to discharge pollution into rivers from time to time, which is generally difficult to find, which also puts forward higher requirements for law enforcers, not only need to improve the ability to detect malicious pollution discharge, but also accurately crack down on illegal enterprises and severely punish them.

At present, the environmental protection department has opened an investigation against the two enterprises and requested that the reform be carried out immediately. If the two enterprises that openly violate the law reach the level of serious environmental pollution, the relevant responsible persons may constitute the crime of environmental pollution, and they will be severely punished by the law. This can also serve as a wake-up call to those producers and operators who try to discharge pollution illegally, not to take chances, and that any serious damage to the environment will not escape justice.

In March this year, the Hubei Province Danjiangkou Reservoir Water Ecological Environmental Protection Work Symposium held in Shiyan City clearly pointed out that it is necessary to always adhere to the problem-oriented approach, ensure that the environmental quality can only be better and not worse, avoid environmental emergencies, prevent environmental damage and damage, and strictly control pollutant emissions.

This incident has obviously sounded the alarm for the local area. Taking this as an opportunity, the local government may wish to conduct a "general physical examination" of regional rivers, deeply check the blind spots of pollutant discharge, unblock environmental protection reporting channels and effective handling mechanisms, severely punish illegal acts, and earnestly assume the great responsibility of "ensuring the sustainable delivery of clean water from a reservoir to the north".

In recent years, the results of China's ecological and environmental protection governance have been obvious to all, and the relevant environmental protection law enforcement supervision system has also been continuously improved. In this context, the phenomenon of illegal discharge of sewage by enterprises in the water source areas of major national projects has lasted for at least several months, which may also remind that it is still not to be underestimated the fluke psychology of illegal pollution discharge by some enterprises and the "vacuum" in grassroots environmental law enforcement and supervision. After all, if a major national project causes serious consequences, no one can bear this responsibility.

Beijing News