CCTV''s "Economic Half Hour" | Landscape Answer Sheet - Provincial Practice of Ecological Civilization Guizhou: Guizhou''s Journey to the "Two Mountains" Road

Guizhou Province is located in the southwestern hinterland of China, with fragile ecology, which once restricted the development of the local economy. However, from 2015 to 2024, the gross domestic product of Guizhou region increased from 1.05 trillion yuan to 2.27 trillion yuan, and the forest coverage rate jumped from 50% to 63.3%. In 2024, the proportion of days with good air quality in 9 central cities in Guizhou will reach 99.1%, and the water quality at the exit sections of major rivers will remain 100% excellent.

The Nanming River, also known as the Qingshui River and the mother river of Guiyang, is an important tributary of the Wujiang River. It has a total length of 219 kilometers, of which 185 kilometers are within the jurisdiction of Guiyang City. Before the 1970s, Nanming River was a direct drinking water source for Guiyang. However, with the rapid advancement of industrialization and urbanization, a large amount of industrial wastewater and domestic sewage were directly discharged into the river, causing the water quality of Nanming River to drop to Class V at one point.

The local sewage treatment capacity is 990000 tons per day, but there is an additional 400000 tons of sewage that cannot be treated. The traditional treatment method is to build a large sewage treatment plant at the end of the river, but the cost of sewage treatment is very high. So how can we solve this problem of domestic sewage treatment?

After multiple on-site investigations and research, in 2012, Guiyang City proposed to change the traditional end of pipe bottom management method to segmented and graded management, and replenish water nearby. At regular intervals along the Nanming River, sewage treatment plants will be built in different sections of the river. Each sewage treatment plant will treat sewage locally, and the regenerated water after sewage treatment will be supplied back to the Nanming River.

Jiang Shuai, Director of Guiyang River and Lake Protection Center

We have 20 (sewage treatment plants) on the main stream, and for the entire watershed, if you look at our tributary, we have built all the nearby regenerated water plants on all the tributaries, totaling 35. The (regenerated) water that is replenished to the Nanming River nearby is 1.5 million tons per day. If we save money on water resource allocation fees, we can save about 150 million yuan

In order to leave a landscape green channel for the ground, these sewage treatment plants are built along the Nanming River, underground at a depth of more than ten meters. The Qingshan Reclaimed Water Plant of China Water Environment Group is an underground sewage treatment plant in the urban area of Guiyang. The sewage undergoes a series of professional treatments here, and the water quality meets the Class IV standard, and then flows back into the Nanming River as ecological supply water.

Hao Wenlei, Deputy Director of Qingshan Reclaimed Water Plant of China Water Environment Group

Our factory has a daily processing capacity of approximately 50000 tons, and since January 1, 2015, we have processed a total of approximately 7 million tons

After more than 10 years of full effort in governance, all 25 black and odorous water bodies in the entire Nanming River basin have been eliminated, and the water quality of all 7 first-class tributaries has reached the standard. The water quality in the central urban area has stabilized to Class IV, V or above, and some river sections have reached Class III or above.

We have also noticed some innovations in the management of the Nanming River, including our ecological compensation mechanism, but will these innovations put pressure on the local finances

Yang Tongguang, Vice Governor of Guizhou Provincial People's Government

At a certain stage, there will definitely be pressure, it depends on whether it is a long-term account or an immediate account. Since 2017, we have invested nearly 10 billion yuan along the Nanming River alone, which also saves us from the unreasonable and uncontrollable investments in pollution control called "treating the head and foot"

The Nanming River, winding from the Black Stinky River to the Clear Water River, has become a microcosm of the changing water environment in Guizhou. Nowadays, all 30 county-level cities in Guizhou province have eliminated black and odorous water bodies, and the system has promoted source control, completing the treatment of 8204 river discharge outlets in the province, with a national key river treatment rate of over 96%.

News source: CCTV website