Two - Sessions Time | Xinhua News Agency: The Comprehensive Management of Nanming River in Guiyang - A Beautiful Transformation from an Ecological Pain Point

Guiyang, the capital city honored with the title of “Ecological Civilization Construction Demonstration Zone,” and topping the list of “National Water - playing and Summer Retreat Destinations,” owes much of its ecological success to its effective “battle for blue skies and clear waters.”

The comprehensive management of the Nanming River in Guiyang is a prime example of prioritizing ecology to lead a green transition, creating a model for reducing carbon emissions, pollution, and expanding green growth.

The Nanming River, often referred to as Guiyang's “mother river,” is a first - level tributary of the Wujiang River and a second - level tributary of the Yangtze River. With its vast basin and wide - ranging influence, it plays a crucial role in supporting Guiyang's economic and social development and improving people's livelihoods.

In the memories of Guiyang residents, the Nanming River was once an ecological sore spot, where “opening the window meant smelling the foul odor, and people would hold their noses and hurry past.” As the nation prioritized “intensifying pollution prevention and control” as a key task in ecological civilization construction, the effectiveness of the Nanming River's management became a key indicator of success in the pollution - reduction and carbon - reduction battle.

Traditional centralized sewage treatment plants struggled to cope with the terrain differences of a mountainous city. In Guiyang's karst topography, the sewage - intercepting pipeline network was like a “leaky bamboo basket,” failing to effectively collect sewage and even causing secondary pollution. The Nanming River was caught in a vicious cycle of “repeated treatment and repeated pollution.”

Since 2013, China Water Environment Group, which participated in the management of the Nanming River, introduced an innovative concept of “moderate centralization, local treatment, and nearby reuse.” Using a distributed and sunken reclaimed water ecosystem, the group launched a systematic and forward - looking comprehensive management campaign along the Nanming River, returning to Guiyang residents the clear waters and green banks, and the sight of fish swimming in the shallow bottom.

The sewage treatment plant was divided into an underground treatment layer, an operating layer, and a ground - level landscape layer, completely solving the “not - in - my - backyard” problems of odor and noise, and achieving land - saving use. Along the Nanming River basin, 24 new and expanded sunken reclaimed water plants were built, with a total treatment capacity reaching the hundred - million - ton level, directly replenishing the river's ecological base flow, with an annual water - replenishing volume of more than 450 million cubic meters.

Aerial view of the Hebin Reclaimed Water Plant in Guiyang.

The reclaimed water plant is a core facility for urban water environment management, and the associated sludge treatment is also crucial. The past extensive model of “treating water but not mud” did not match Guiyang's goal of “ecology - based city.” With the city's rapid development, there was an urgent need for more environmentally friendly and efficient treatment technologies to achieve harmless and resource - oriented sludge treatment. During the management of the Nanming River, sludge resource utilization was first included in the ecological management system.

To address the sludge treatment problem, China Water Environment Group used biological drying and stabilization technology to turn sludge into soil for greening or raw materials for building materials, achieving a win - win situation of harmlessness and resource utilization, and solving the “last - mile” pollution problem.

Today, the water quality of the Nanming River has stabilized at the Class IV standard for surface water, with 80% of the year reaching the Class III standard for surface water. The coverage rate of submerged plants has increased from 15% to 85%, and the number of aquatic plant species has exceeded 23. The number of benthic animal species has reached 33, with 16 species of zooplankton and as many as 29 dominant fish species. The reappearance of the Guizhou - endemic species, the spotted golden line barb, in the river indicates that the ecosystem health index is close to a “very healthy” state, and the river's self - purification capacity has been significantly enhanced.

Egrets hunt loaches in the Nanming River. Xinhua News Agency, Lu Zhijia, photo.

The Nanming River has become an excellent case of the “second batch of beautiful rivers and lakes” of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. Its management and protection experience has been selected as a typical case of “promoting the implementation of major ecological environment projects” by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and promoted nationwide. Green and low - carbon development has become a distinct feature of Guiyang's urban development.

As an important ecological security barrier upstream of the Yangtze and Pearl rivers, Guizhou has been committed to deepening ecological civilization construction. The management of the Nanming River is undoubtedly the most vivid practice among them. This achievement has also contributed a replicable “Guiyang experience” to urban river management nationwide.

People take a leisurely walk along the Nanming River. Xinhua News Agency, Lu Zhijia, photo.