The groundwater in Bozhou, Anhui Province, where famous wines are produced, is in emergency. What is the reason?

The governments of 202 1 1 8, Shuozhou, Shanxi, Bozhou, Anhui, Shangqiu, Henan, Yulin, Changji, Yili, Xinjiang, etc. were consulted by the Water Resources Management Department of the Ministry of Water Resources in conjunction with the Ministry of Supervision due to the obvious drop of groundwater level in the second and third quarters of 2020.

Among them, Bozhou is more troublesome. In the notification of the Ministry of Water Resources, Bozhou City ranked first in the country in the second and third quarters of last year. The data show that from May 16 to June 17 last year, the groundwater depth in Bozhou suddenly decreased by 16.69 meters, which lasted for more than 10 days until August 18 to 19, when the groundwater depth suddenly decreased.

Due to the serious pollution of surface water, similar to many cities in China, Bozhou city began to mine groundwater many years ago, and now it has formed a groundwater funnel. In recent years, Bozhou is also trying to control the problem of groundwater overexploitation, which is difficult to swing between economic development and water resources protection.

The wells in Gujing Town are getting deeper and deeper.

The data of "the first in the country" of groundwater decline in Bozhou comes from 20469 groundwater monitoring stations jointly established by the Ministry of Water Resources and the Ministry of Natural Resources.

Based on the data of these stations, the Ministry of Water Resources will notify 108 prefecture-level administrative regions and 37 prefecture-level administrative regions with over-exploitation of shallow groundwater from 2020 according to the year-on-year change of the quarterly average water level, and take the form of consultation and interview for the prefecture-level administrative regions with reported large water level decline.

In 20 19, the groundwater level in the center of Bozhou was 67.00m, which was 2.10m lower than that in 20 18 and 4.13m lower than that in 20 17. Tao Yuezan, a professor at the School of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering of Hefei University of Technology, told the reporter of China Newsweek that the groundwater level in Bozhou has dropped by two or three meters almost every year in the past decade.

In Bozhou City, the problem of groundwater overexploitation in Gujing Town is the most serious. The pillar industries of Bozhou City are brewing and pharmacy. In the liquor industry, the most famous brand in Bozhou is Gu Jing Distillery, which is full of wineries and liquor enterprises.

By the end of 20 18, the output value of Bozhou liquor reached 124 billion yuan, accounting for1/0.5% of the total industrial output value. The total tax payment was 2.795 billion yuan, accounting for 15.78% of the city's tax revenue. At the same time, Bozhou is also one of the "drug capitals" in China. At the beginning of last year, the city put forward the goal of an annual output value of 50 billion yuan for the Chinese medicine manufacturing industry that year. Both brewing and pharmacy have extremely high requirements on water quality, and the former consumes a lot of water.

Different from many cities, Bozhou groundwater overexploitation is located in deep groundwater. Tao Yuezan pointed out that in the 1950s, Bozhou City began to mine shallow aquifers 0 to 50 meters underground. However, due to mining technical problems, fine sand was always poured into the well at that time, and residents often needed precipitation and filtration when using it, which was very troublesome. The aquifer 90 to 150 meters further down has the problem of insufficient water. Therefore, the groundwater in Bozhou City reaches the third pore aquifer of 200-350 meters, with stable water quality and large water output.

According to the water resources bulletin of Bozhou in 2020, the total water supply of the whole city is 1065m? . Surface water 34 1.6 million m? , accounting for 32.1%of the total water supply; Shallow groundwater 5 10.2 million m? , accounting for 47.9% of total water supply; The middle and deep groundwater is 65.438+0.85 billion m? , accounting for17.4% of the total water supply; The water supply of other water sources is 28.2 million m? , accounting for 2.6% of total water supply. The destination of deep groundwater is mainly some industries, residential water and some services, with a water supply of 53 million m? 1 1 1 ten thousand meters? There are still 9 million m? .

Under the premise that the surface water is not up to standard, the quality of shallow groundwater is unstable and there is no alternative water source, the exploitation of deep groundwater in Bozhou City has become just needed.

"useless" surface water

Zhao Dejian, deputy director of Bozhou Water Resources Bureau, told China Newsweek that the daily water demand in Bozhou is about 6,543,800 cubic meters? In the peak period of water use in previous years, the available water in urban areas was only 65,438+10,000 m? In the early days, supply was in short supply. According to the latest issue of Bozhou Water Resources Bulletin, the per capita water resources in Bozhou City is 279. 1m? , far less than the per capita water resources of Anhui Province, 848.07m? , lower than the internationally recognized standard of extreme shortage of water resources (500m per capita? )。

Harness surface water so that the average inflow is 392.2 million cubic meters? Wohe River becomes the source of domestic water for residents, which is the most direct way to solve the problem of groundwater overexploitation in Bozhou. However, judging from the management of the vortex river in the past 20 years, this road is temporarily impassable. Zhao Dejian also bluntly said that it is because "surface water is not good" that groundwater is used.

The Wohe River is the second largest tributary of the Huaihe River. It starts in Kaifeng, Henan Province, flows through several counties in Henan Province, enters Anhui Province in Bozhou, and finally joins the Huaihe River in Huaiyuan County, Bengbu. The pollution and control of the Wohe River is in step with the pollution and control of the Huaihe River, which is famous all over the country.

In the early 1980s, Zhao Dejian, who was studying in university, returned to his hometown in Bozhou, where he would swim and bathe in the river. In the 1990s, the water in the Wohe River became black and smelly. At that time, with the development of industrial and agricultural production and the acceleration of urbanization, the water quality of the main tributaries of Huaihe River was rapidly deteriorating. In the early 1990s, more than half of the main tributaries of Huaihe River 16 exceeded the national standard of five kinds of surface water, that is to say, water has lost its use value.

1994 The state put forward the goal of clearing the Huaihe River in the 20th century, but the control effect was repeated. Zhao Dejian recalled that until a few years ago, the water quality of the Wohe River was basically in the fifth category or worse than the fifth category standard. The real change has been in recent years. With the promotion of the central environmental protection inspector and the establishment of the ecological compensation mechanism, the pollution control efforts in the upper and lower reaches of the vortex river have been continuously strengthened, and at present, it can basically reach the four types of water standards.

However, Zhou Biao, head of the Water Resources Management Section of Bozhou Water Resources Bureau, told China Newsweek that not all sections of the Guo River have reached Class 4 water, some may be worse than Class 4 water, and some may have reached Class 3 water, so the water quality is unstable, and there is still a big gap between Class 3 and Class 2 water standards for drinking water. According to the relevant regulations of surface water, it can only be used for industry and agriculture.

Uncontrollable upstream water pollution incidents and the fact that the water quality of the Wohe River can't meet the domestic water standard at present make it impossible for Bozhou to consider replacing deep groundwater with surface water, so it is necessary to find another way.

Looking for external water sources

Bozhou, which suffered from the shortage of local water resources for a long time, finally found a solution-joining the project of diverting water from the Yangtze River to Huaihe River.

The Yangtze River water is sent all the way north through Chaohu Lake and Huaihe River to improve its water ecological environment and supply water to 46 counties in Anhui 12 city and 9 counties in 2 cities in Henan. From south to north, the project of diverting water from the Yangtze River to Huaihe River is divided into three sections, namely, diverting water from the Yangtze River to the nest, communicating with the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, and sending clear water to the north. Bozhou joined the third section, the project of sending rivers to the north.

The relevant person in charge of Gu Jing Town found Zhao Dejian, hoping to send some water to the town's waterworks. Zhao Dejian said that after the completion of the project of diverting water from the Yangtze River to the Huaihe River, there will be 50,000 cubic meters of water? The water will be sent to Gujing Town Waterworks. Except the groundwater that must be used for brewing, all other production and domestic water in Gujing Town will be supplied by these 50,000 cubic meters? Water supply. After one year, it will save10 million m? Development of local deep groundwater.

Bozhou city is right about this 438 million m? The water has been distributed. In the future, there will be two roads, namely, the two rivers in Bozhou city, the Guoye River and the Xifei River. Depending on the change of warning water level, it will be transported back to Bozhou against the current direction. This 438 million m? The amount of water will be basically divided equally. According to the different water quality, half of the water is used for industry and agriculture through the Wohe River, and the other half is used for residents' life and some industries through the Xifei River.

The supply side of water resources has improved, but changing the thinking of water demand is not a day's work. A few years ago, Bozhou introduced a major project, and a brewery landed in Bozhou. Before the introduction of the project, the Municipal Water Conservancy Bureau knew nothing about it. After the project landed, the brewery found that Bozhou was short of water resources, and the groundwater used to brew liquor tasted strange if it was used to brew beer. On the other hand, the water conservancy department also has many requirements for their water use and sewage treatment, and the factory can only close down in the end.

Ma Yong, Deputy Secretary-General of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation, pointed out in an interview with China Newsweek that there are still many cities in China that lack the thinking of "fixing production by water". "The total amount of water is certain. How many industries can it accommodate? What kind of industry is suitable for development here? Planning in this area is very lacking. " He pointed out that the common idea of attracting investment in many places is that geographical location is not dominant, and for development, all industries can attract and it is difficult to control water use.

Caution is needed in inter-basin water transfer.

Ma Yong believes that besides water production and water quota, Bozhou should also work hard on the utilization efficiency of water resources. For the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region where groundwater overexploitation is serious, the utilization rate of reclaimed water in Beijing is 27.35% in 20 18 years; In 2020, the utilization rate of reclaimed water in Tianjin will reach more than 40%; Hebei also proposed that the utilization rate of reclaimed water in key river basins involving cities and counties should reach more than 30% by the end of 2020.

But on the whole, water transfer is still an important way to control groundwater overexploitation in China, which can replace groundwater in over-exploited areas on the one hand and replenish groundwater on the other. Relevant departments of the Ministry of Water Resources told China Newsweek that the total amount of groundwater exploitation in China is 93.42 billion cubic meters? , accounting for 15.5% of the total water supply in China. There are 2 1 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) with different degrees of groundwater overexploitation, of which Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is the most serious. Over the years, 5.6 billion cubic meters of water has been supplied to Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei through the first phase of the Yellow River Diversion Project and the Middle Route of South-to-North Water Transfer Project. .

However, some experts are cautious about inter-basin water transfer. A retired person from Anhui Water Resources Department who asked not to be named told China Newsweek that we should be cautious about inter-basin water transfer. She believes that the water transfer project has provided more water supply and alleviated the shortage of water resources, but it seems that water saving is not so critical, and the incremental rebound of water use indirectly increases the amount of sewage discharged. Nature's self-purification ability is limited, and too much sewage will eventually pollute local surface water and groundwater, resulting in new ecological problems.

Chen Jian, director of the Groundwater Environmental Protection Research Office of the Environmental Planning Institute of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, told China Newsweek that scientific evaluation is really needed and groundwater recharge should be treated with caution. His reason is that compared with groundwater, surface water has greater environmental capacity and stronger self-purification ability. Therefore, the state's monitoring of groundwater environment is relatively stricter. The regulatory objectives of surface water and groundwater are different, the pollutants involved are different and the regulatory requirements are different. Therefore, the risk of groundwater recharge from surface water needs scientific assessment, and the suitability of groundwater recharge should be based on data. It is understood that relevant research work is underway.

In response to an interview with China Newsweek, the Ministry of Water Resources said that it planned to organize a new round of groundwater overexploitation assessment in China on 20021. In addition, while doing a good job in the comprehensive management of groundwater overexploitation in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Ministry of Water Resources has also organized and compiled plans for the control and protection of groundwater overexploitation in nine key areas, including Sanjiang Plain, Huanghuai Area and the southern and northern foothills of Tianshan Mountain, to further promote the control of groundwater overexploitation.