We must give priority to prevention to ensure the safety of the water ecological environment

The report of the Party's 20th National Congress called for "strict prevention and control of environmental risks". Water environment is related to the national economy and people's livelihood and the well-being of tens of millions of families. Water ecological environment risk is an important part of environmental risk.



In recent years, China's water environment quality continues to improve, but the risk of water ecological environment is still showing a high trend. A large number of chemical enterprises are close to the water and the city, and the distribution and structural risks are prominent. The risk of heavy metal accumulation in the bottom mud of rivers and lakes cannot be ignored, and the control capacity of new pollutants such as environmental hormones and antibiotics is insufficient. The "Key River Basin Water ecological Environmental Protection Plan" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan") issued by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and other five departments highlights the key points, the word "prevention" is the first, and indicates the direction of water ecological environmental risk prevention during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period.



Keep the risk threshold at the source well



The focus of source prevention is to solve the problem of distribution and the main responsibility of enterprises and institutions. In the Yangtze River basin, petrochemical, chemical, pharmaceutical, textile printing and dyeing enterprises with high risk and heavy pollution are densely scattered along the river, and water transportation channels cross the water source protection area. The coal chemical industry in the Yellow River basin is densely distributed, with many risk sources and prominent structural and layout risks, so it is imperative to optimize the layout.



The "Plan" clearly to strengthen the environmental risk prevention and control of tailings ponds, strengthen the classification and classification of tailings environmental supervision, by the end of 2023, the Yangtze River main stream within 3 kilometers of the coastline and important tributaries, lakes within 1 kilometers of the coastline of tailings ponds to complete pollution control. Priority should be given to the treatment of tailings ponds within 3 kilometers of the main stream of the Yellow River and within 1 kilometers of important tributaries and lake shorelines, as well as in key areas such as reservoirs, drinking water sources, and geological disasters prone to frequent occurrence. At the same time, we will strengthen the prevention and control of heavy metal pollution in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, such as the "manganese Triangle".



Enterprises and public institutions are the main body of responsibility for environmental risk prevention, but also the main force for source prevention. The Plan requires the implementation of the main responsibility for environmental risk prevention of industrial enterprises, focusing on enterprises involving hazardous waste and heavy metals, and strengthening the construction of emergency facilities; Enterprises, public institutions and other producers and business operators discharging toxic and harmful water pollutants shall monitor the sewage discharge outlets and the surrounding environment; The classification of industrial wastewater in energy and chemical industry bases in Yellow River basin, the main stream of Yangtze River and chemical industry parks and hazardous chemical terminals in Xiangjiang River, Ganjiang River, Minjiang River, Jialing River and Fujiang River basin is put forward



Classification and quality treatment and monitoring, comprehensive toxicity pilot monitoring of the park sewage treatment plant and other requirements.



Improve monitoring and early warning capabilities



The key to risk prevention is to take precautions and improve monitoring and early warning ability. There are many river and lake basins in China, and there are obvious differences in risk characteristics and risk sources among different basins. In line with the requirements of the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, the Plan highlights key points, defines deadlines, and puts forward capacity building tasks.



The first thing is to find out. In response to the problem of unclear cumulative risk bases and weak foundation in China, the Plan clearly states that key enterprises and industrial agglomeration areas such as chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, paper making, non-ferrous metal mining and smelting, lead battery manufacturing, electroplating, hazardous waste and heavy metals, and the Xiangjiang River basin, Ganjiang River basin and other heavy metal pollution in the sediment are more serious. In Hunan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Jiangxi and other heavy metal smelting enterprises, the focus is on the investigation and assessment of the risk of toxic and harmful pollutants or persistent organic pollutants such as heavy metals in river and lake bottom mud and beaches. By the end of 2025, a cumulative risk basic database will be established to fully grasp the cumulative risk base.



Second, we need to improve monitoring, early warning and emergency response capabilities. The hydrological conditions of watershed in China are complicated and changeable, so the risk analysis and judgment of watershed water environment under various situations are faced with great uncertainty. The Plan requires strengthening the construction of a monitoring and early warning system, clearly including relevant enterprises and institutions that cause serious damage to public health or have high environmental health risks and discharge chemical substances listed in the List of Priority Control Chemicals into the list of key pollutant discharge units, and supervise and inspect the implementation of environmental risk prevention measures for pollutant discharge units in accordance with the law. At the same time, enterprises and institutions that discharge toxic and harmful pollutants are required to establish an environmental risk early warning system. In addition, in terms of improving emergency response capacity, the Plan proposes to strengthen the reserves of environmental emergency materials such as the Ili River, the Irtysh River, the Emin River, the Nu River, the Red River, the Yarlung Zangbo River and the Lancang River, establish a national "1+N" emergency monitoring and support system and cross-border emergency monitoring and support system, and explore the co-construction mode of diversified environmental emergency support capacity of the government, enterprises and society.



Establish and improve the emergency response system



The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China attaches great importance to improving the comprehensive management ability of the ecological environment and proposes to "improve the modern environmental management system". The system plays a fundamental and long-term role in management, and building a sound water environment risk prevention system is an important way to improve the environmental management system and improve the level of water ecological environment risk prevention.



In 2020, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the Ministry of Water Resources jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Establishing a Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism for Inter-Provincial Upstream and Downstream Water Pollution Emergencies, focusing on the issues of "who will do it", "what to do" and "how to do it", making it clear that provincial governments are responsible for coordinating the establishment and implementation of a joint prevention and control mechanism for inter-provincial upstream and downstream water pollution emergencies. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has formulated the "Work Plan for Joint Prevention and Control of Water Pollution Emergencies in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region", and has conducted joint combat exercises for water environmental emergencies in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region for three consecutive years since 2017. In 2019, Guangdong and Fujian jointly carried out an emergency drill for water pollution emergencies in the Tingjiang-Hanjiang transboundary basin. Based on the existing practice, the "Plan" clearly requires strengthening the construction of environmental risk emergency coordination and linkage mechanism, and the whole process of overall research and judgment early warning, joint prevention, information sharing, joint monitoring, and collaborative disposal; To form a joint force for emergency response, transportation, water conservancy, ecological environment and other departments to deal with water pollution emergencies.



In short, it is necessary to adhere to the word of prevention, build a solid water ecological environment safety bottom line, provide a safe ecological environment for high-quality development, promote green development, and promote harmonious coexistence between man and nature.