Xihe Beach Park: "Sewage Ditch" Transforming into National Model for Residential Environment
Xihe Beach Park is an important part of the heavy metal pollution control project in Xiangjiang River Basin (Xihe River). The project is located in Xiabaishui Village, Guanshandong Street, Suxian District, Chenzhou City, covering an area of 35 hectares, with a total investment of 130 million yuan. In the 1990s, Xihe River Basin, as a secondary tributary of Xiangjiang River, suffered from a large number of disorderly mining of non-ferrous metals and rampant disorderly mining. A large number of solid wastes containing heavy metal pollutants and tailings of beneficiation were piled up on both sides of Xihe River Basin, and the mining and beneficiation wastewater was discharged arbitrarily, resulting in river silting and heavy metals exceeding the standard seriously. Xihe River has become the "sewage ditch" in Suxian District.
Since 2011, Suxian District has carried out ecological restoration in the closed area of the original tailings mine. A park has been built on the side of the Xihe River and the original centralized area of the tailings reservoir. Through centralized clearing, transportation and treatment of river tailings, the water quality of the river section has been stably controlled within the national class III surface water quality standard. Two leisure and fitness squares, two beach recreation areas, one ecological parking lot, a 8-kilometer road were built, and 60000 Nanzhu plants and 100000 m2 shrubs were planted, with a greening coverage rate of 70 percent to realize the secondary development, and orderly utilization and sustainable development of heavy metal pollution areas, which played a positive role in improving the ecological environment and human settlements of the whole Xiangjiang River Basin.
In 2013, Xihe Beach Park won the "National Model Prize for Residential Environment", which is a new government award established by China referring to the UN living environment award, and the highest award in the field of China's living environment construction.