“In the past, due to lack of joint management and protection mechanism, illegal sand mining in Damaxi and Xiaomaxi rivers occurred from time to time. Now, a cross-border river management system was built, so that the illegal sand mining has been effectively curbed, achieving remarkable results in water protection and management,” said Zhu Fangcai, deputy director of the river chief office in Rucheng County. 

 

Chenzhou is located at the intersection of Nanling Mountains and Luoxiao Mountains, and at the cradle of Xiangjiang River, the Pearl River and Ganjiang River. It’s rich in water resources, with an average annual water contribution of more than 16 billion cubic meters. 

 

Dongjiang Lake is the largest source of drinking water in Hunan province and the strategic water source of Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan City Cluster.

 

To protect water resources, 3,337 government officials are hired as river chiefs at city, county, township and village levels. This year, they have made 155,410 river patrols and solved 462 prominent problems. 

 

“Building a joint river chief system is a new measure for river and lake management.” Ouyang Zhigan, deputy director of Chenzhou River Chief Office, introduced that Chenzhou takes cross-border river and lake management as the top priority of river chief system. A series of measures have been taken to solve problems such as imperfect mechanism and unclear responsibilities, promote the management and protection of cross-border rivers in border areas and achieve a new breakthrough in managing and protecting cross-order rivers. 

 

Chawu River crosses the section between Puman village in Jiahe county and Dengjia village in Guiyang County. It was once covered by weeds and garbage floating on the river due to unclear boundary and lack of management.

 

In June last year, driven by Chenzhou River Chief Office, Jiahe and Guiyang counties signed an agreement to jointly manage and protect Chawu River.  

 

To jointly protect water resources, the city has established a joint management mechanism covering the whole city. Meanwhile, the local government will combine river management and protection with all-for-one tourism, characteristic agriculture, targeted poverty alleviation and beautiful countryside construction. 

 

In the past two years, the city and county governments jointly solved 89 river-related violations, treated 10 black and smelly water bodies in urban built-up areas. 13 sites receiving waste from ships were built, rivers with an area of more than 50 square kilometers were demarcated, and wetlands of 70,000 square meters were protected and restored.