New step for the construction of “beautiful Chenzhou” with ecological restoration of Donghe, Xihe River

On December 4, 2012, the waste stream retreatment project of Donghe and Xihe river- the demonstration project of mine geological environment governance of metal mining area in Suxian district, Chenzhou city was started. Shizhuyuan National Museum of Mine Park laid its foundation on the same day. Both of the two projects marked that Chenzhou government accelerated the remediation of mines, mining areas and their ecological restoration.

Director of China's Geological Environment Monitoring Academy of State Land and Resource Ministry- Hou Jinwu, Ministry of Hunan Provincial Land and Resource Ministry- Fang Xianzhi, Academician of Chinese Academy of Science- Pei Rongfu, other leaders and honored guests attended the ceremony. Xiang Lili- Secretary of Chenzhou Municipal Party Committee announced the start of the project during the ceremony, Qu Hai- Deputy Secretary of Chenzhou Municipal Party Committee and Mayor of Chenzhou city delivered a speech as well.

Donghe and Xihe River suffered greatly from frequent geological disasters, which were caused by the illegal mining behaviors. In recent years, Chenzhou municipal party committee and Chenzhou government have taken many measures to fight for illegal mining, retreatment of geological environment of mines, river dredging and prevention of soil erosion, etc. in this area and achieved effective results. This waste rock stream retreatment project launched on that day is one of the key mining areas which urgently need comprehensive treatment.

Some pre-treatment projects were carried first in Xihe River, for instance, Xihe beach park covered 500mu areas; sport park and wetland park were on the process of construction, etc.. Mine geological environment governance project of metal mining area in Suxian district was approved as a national demonstration project in 2012. This project includes 13.8 square kilometers of treatment areas along Xihe River, where land rehabilitation, forest restoration, waste rock stream retreatment, river dredging and others are supposed to be carried out. The first phase of the waste rock stream governance project of Xihe River gained 42 million yuan investment, mainly including field engineering of Xihe waste rock stream accumulation area, ecological landscape restoration, etc..

The key governance project of Donghe River is the Shizhuyuan mining area, which will be forged to a world-class mine park according to the plan. The park covers 86.66 square kilometers of areas including 47.06 square kilometers of core landscapes, and will be divided into tourism spot, tourism service area and periphery protection zone. This project will last for 5 years, and the first phase of it is mainly focusing on the mining industry cultural expo zone, which is the basic project of mine park construction, while the second phase is focusing on the development of other tourism projects and landscapes. Among them, there are 13.8 square kilometers of governance areas which will be planted with 4.59 square kilometers of trees and gaining the recovery of 0.95 square kilometers of arable land.

Qu Hai stated in his speech that it was significant and helpful to eliminate mine geological disasters in the region, broaden the reserve resource of cultivated land, upgrade quality of land and resource and improve living conditions of residents through this mine geological environment governance project of Suxian district. This project also meets Chenzhou city’s demand of exploring a new method of mining area governance, transformation development, “two-oriented society” and ecological civilization construction, and beautiful Chenzhou construction. It is a significant ecological project, well-being project and practical project carried out by Chenzhou government.

Qu Hai also confirmed that Chenzhou government would try best to support and promote the construction. He also required that all the departments should work together to provide the project construction with good condition, meanwhile all the construction organizations should enhance the quality of project design and coordinate the work of supervision units to make the project fulfilled with high standard, high quality and high efficiency.

Chenzhou municipal leaders Xie Yuan’an, Shou Jianzhong, Cao Jianping and Liu Zhiwei participated in relative activities.