Water is the essential element of people’s life. The Jaingbei District is located in the Sanjiang area of Ningbo City, where the Yaojiang River and the Yongjiang River crosses and create an area that is susceptible to natural disasters such as floods and droughts. Taking advantage of the waters to benefit people has always been an ambition for people living in the area.
Since 2014, the government of the Jiangbei District began systematically managing the water system, and insisted on the strategy of managing the five rivers and preventing floods and pollution. The government focused on building infrastructure, dredging the rivers and removing drought points, which achieves great achievement and demonstrates the philosophy that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets.
Building High-quality Water System
Aiming at building a high-quality water system, the government of Jiangbei District has been focusing on specific environmental issues and makes targeted measures to different river areas.
Recently, the water administration department of the Jiangbei District received the document from the Beidou Data Technology that tests the water quality of the rivers in the area. It completely shows the analysis of waters distributed in the area and gives the issues relating water colors, river routes and river banks. All the information for each issue, including the satellite data and location, has a QR Code for readers to learn on mobile phones.
“We used to send people to collect such information, but different points has different analysis results. The satellites are of great help as it links all the points,” said the person in charge of the water administration department. The technology saved a lot of labor and money, and helps them find issues in time. “Since October 2020, we monitor the rivers evety two months and send the problems to related department for professional analysis.”
The Beidou+AI technology applies high-resolution tests and monitoring to help people tackle problems like finding pollution sources and taking evidence. The system is significant because it saved costs and is of high efficiency.
The government of the Jiangbei District will improve the system and applies a model integrating satellite pictures, monitoring apps, drones and issue-tacking methods. By fully taking advantage of high technologies, it will upgrade the level of water management.
Bulding Zero-emission Area
The Jiangbei District takes the building of zero-pollution emission area as a basic and landmark project, and a fundamental measure to manage pollution. It promotes systematic solutions to tackle sewage issues and strives to realize zero pollution during rainy days. At the same time, it explores technologies to repairing drainage tunnels without digging, and regulates the maintenance approaches to improve pollution magements in rural areas. This year, the government expects to invest 380 million yuan to improve the drainage system in the area.
For quite a long time, the underground drainage system in the city has a lot of potential risks, because the area is one of the three oldest areas of Ningbo City. The drainage system has multiple structural problems of sewage filtering because of equipment aging and soft soil. Meanwhile, the sewage and rain water are drained in the same system, hampering the improvement of local water quality.
To solve the problems, the government builds the city’s first drainage management center to strategically regulate the management and evaluation of the whole area’s drainage work. It engages in the dredging of local drainage system and invested 15.2 million yuan to repair and renovate the equipment. The administration selected 21 communities that have finished zero-emission renovation to check the results and organized 119 testing activities to trouble-shoot the problems of separating rain water and polluted water.
At the same time, it improved the Baoyunzhuang Area located in Hongtang Street which used to be a high-pollution area mixing small companies and spare lands. After the improvement, cultural resources were introduced and 12 small companies were closed to upgrade local industries and activate spare or low-efficiency resources. The building of local water recycling system renovated original water conservancy equipment and helped build new water banks and channels. The wetland surrounding local irrigation channels crosses the rural areas and provide water to river channels. The valves on the ends of the drainage channels will open during rainy days to drain river waters.
The area also builds beautiful rural parks and engages in creative agricultural industries. It plants lotuses, colorful crops and vegetables to form a beautiful and unique rural scene, which attracts a lot of people in Ningbo to travel in the area.
Building Beautiful Rivers and Lakes
The government of Jiangbei District is committed to building beautiful lakes and rivers, and has been striving to build beautiful rural areas. The area aims to boast unique and attractive rivers and lakes with abundant cultural characteristics, and based on local water environment to build great countryside and urban areas.
The Yaojiang River, the Guanshanhe River and the Maojiahe River are all on the list of Beautiful Rivers and Lakes released by the water conservancy department of Zhejiang Province. The renovation of Maojiahe River is a prominent example as it achieves harmony between human and nature while performing its functions of water conservancy.
The Maojiahe River is the main river channel in the Jiangbei District. It totals 5.5 kilometers and the average width is 25 to 30 meters. The river performs functions such as dredging, floods prevention and environmental decoration. In recent years, through a lot of comprehensive management measures such as ecological recovery and pollution re-structuring, the water quality has been greatly improved. Local administration dredges and builds new drainage channels totaling 191.9 kilometers, repairs and builds 4,226 wells and dredges 6.5 kilometers of canals. The length of ecological maintenance reaches 2,830 meters and the coverage of improved water areas reaches 30,300 square meters. The newly added wetland area totals 6,919 square meters, which improved the rivers’ capability of flood control.
The management of Maojiahe River also includes the upgrade of local industries, the improvement of local natural environment and the building of a community of beautiful rivers and lakes. The Hongtangwan Bay is a prominent name card in the area.
Hongwangwan used to be an industrial park with a cluster of small and medium companies. Since 2017, local authorities began upgrading local industries and closing more than 300 unqualified companies. The Hongtangwan Bay has become a beautiful park and a popular tourism destination now.
The achievements in the Jaingbei District are the result of all the people. Building a good environment and enhancing people’s feeling of fulfillment is the ambition and the centerpiece of the management of local water system. Local water management authorities has blazed out a new path and explored a new model of water management to upgrade people’s livelihoods, and staying committed to building a more beautiful Ningbo in the New Era is a continuous theme for local water management work.
China Report ASEAN 