Environmental Management of Yongding River

Since the 1980s, Beijing has been short of water resources, in order to meet the city's water needs, almost all of the water above the Yongding River in Sanjiadian is introduced into the city, so that more than 70 kilometers of the river below Sanjiadian has been cut off for many years, and the land on both sides of the river has been sandy. In recent years, sand and stone quarrying from the Yongding River has become rampant, resulting in gullies and ravines all over the river and the riverbed is exposed, and in winter and spring, the wind blows from the north-west down the river, and the Beijing is suddenly filled with sand and wind. Wind and sand filled the city. Because there is no water to replenish the Yongding River, coupled with a sharp increase in population, industrial water, serious over-exploitation of groundwater, the western part of Beijing, the quaternary groundwater has been completely dried up, Yongding River ecosystem has been seriously damaged.

Yongding River management project was completed and used in 2014, just in time for the South-to-North Water Diversion Center Line Project Xichuan Danjiang water into Beijing. Some environmentalists say that the first phase of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in the Beijing area of the storage reservoir is located in Fangshan District, Yongding River, the right bank of the Daning Reservoir, Yongding River governance project will not use the Danjiang River Basin squeezed out of the South-to-North Water Diversion Water, water transfer costs have been in the South-to-North Water Diversion Water of more than 10 yuan per ton. After the completion of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, the Yongding River's function as one of Beijing's surface water sources will be replaced, which provides conditions for the reconfiguration of water resources in the Yongding River.

As Beijing's mother river and the largest tributary of the Haihe River, the Yongding River still had an abundance of more than 2 billion cubic meters of water in the 1950s and 1960s.

China opened its first post-liberation reservoir, Guanting Reservoir, with a total designed capacity of 4.16 billion cubic meters in the upper reaches of the Beijing section of the Yongding River, at Huailai, Hebei Province, in 1951, and completed it three years later. Guanting Reservoir was forced to withdraw from the sequence of drinking water sources in Beijing.

Even if it is not a pollution problem, Yongding River can not continue to be Beijing's water source. Data obtained by this reporter shows that for four consecutive years from 2006 to 2009, the amount of water entering the Guanting Reservoir was below 100 million cubic meters, at 96 million, 67 million, 80 million and 22 million cubic meters, respectively. "This means that the water flow out of the reservoir, not yet flowing out of the Beijing territory, it all seeped into the ground, that is, the flow is cut off." Sources close to the Beijing Water Affairs Bureau said.

The Yongding River above the Beijing section is in no better shape. Wang Jian, an environmentalist who has hiked the headwaters and upper reaches of the Yongding River many times, told this reporter that dams abound on the Sanggan River in Shanxi, but most of the dams are in the form of ponds, and there is not an abundance of water along the river, while other sections of the river are just in the form of streams that have been heavily polluted. Many of the smaller tributaries, as they dry up, are filled in locally.

Why is more than 2 billion cubic meters of water in the Yongding River gone in a few decades? Hebei Province Water Resources Department senior expert Wei Zhimin analysis, one is the upper reaches of Shanxi Province in recent decades, the population increased by four to five times, the total economic output increased by hundreds of times, far more than the upper reaches of the Yongding River Sanggan River's carrying capacity, the territory of Hebei can only be received in the Yongding River about less than 300 million cubic meters of water. Secondly, with global climate change, deterioration of vegetation and consecutive years of drought, the annual precipitation in Yongding River basin has been decreasing. In Hebei, for example, the annual rainfall was more than 600 millimeters 50 years ago and has been less than 500 millimeters. Thirdly, groundwater is over-exploited and seepage has intensified. 50% of the rainfall was converted into surface runoff during the great flood in Hebei province in 1963, and only 24% could be converted into surface runoff during the great flood in Hebei in 1996.

International water conservancy community of a **** knowledge is, human use of a river water volume of 20%, the natural ecological damage to the river will not be too big; 30% will reach the warning line, will have a serious impact on the ecological. And our use of the Yongding River water, up to 90%, which is tantamount to drinking it dry, the river is bound to be destroyed.

In the management of the Yongding River, the designers creatively proposed a water supply program based on recycled water, but also boldly proposed to create a recycling river, through the water recycling system consisting of pumping stations and pipelines, pumping the water from the downstream to the upstream, so that the water cycle flow, which can save 25% to 30% of ecological water consumption per year.

As Beijing's first large-scale artificial river park, Yongding River River Park has been open for more than two months, so far **** received nearly 180,000 visitors. According to estimates, after the restoration of the Yongding River annual ecological services will increase the value of tens of billions of dollars, adding more than 90 square kilometers of development opportunities along the river area and 100 million square meters of building scale, only the two sides of the real estate appreciation that is more than 10 billion yuan.

Wang Hao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of the Water Resources Institute of the Chinese Academy of Water Sciences, believes that Beijing is in an awkward position in the middle and lower reaches of the Yongding River. "It can't change the reality of excessive water use in the upper reaches, but it has to bear the pain of cutting off the flow."

Since the Yongding River was cut off below Sanjiadian 30 years ago, dozens of kilometers long and hundreds of meters wide, the riverbed is exposed and has become a place for unscrupulous people to poach sand and gravel, with large sand pits everywhere in the river. Residents along the banks of the river to dump garbage, neighborhoods and factories are discharged into the sewage. Every spring and fall, the gusts of wind drumming the riverbed sand, the sky yellow and yellow attacked the public.

Experts close to Beijing's water authority say the city government has been looking for a solution for nearly 30 years.

Before 2005, Beijing's thinking was mainly to ask the central government to coordinate with the upstream provinces to conserve water so that the Yongding River would have water again. The central government spared no effort in coordination and invested tens of billions of yuan in the upper reaches of the Yongding to support local water-saving and pollution-control projects, as well as economic restructuring. Beijing has also supported the upper reaches with no less than 1 billion yuan.

The expert said the water conservation and pollution control efforts in Shanxi and Hebei are not insignificant, but so many people have to drink and eat, and the economy has to grow, so the water saved is quickly swallowed up by new demand. In the end, the upstream water use not only can not be reduced, but also continue to increase, the more treatment the more no water.

With the 2008 Olympics approaching, the Beijing municipal government has proposed a "waterless green" program for the Yongding River. The water department began to plant grass in the river. However, the river channel for many years lack of water soil less, survival rate is not ideal, the river channel mess can never be changed. Part of the district is really helpless, had introduced golf operators in the river built several courses, but due to the course turf need to extract a large amount of groundwater, has been repeatedly exposed by the media.

After the Olympic Games in 2009, Beijing conceived the Yongding River channel "water". Beijing municipal water department was ordered to come up with a program, the task eventually fell to the head of the water conservancy engineers, came up with a program. A make Yongding River "back from the dead" man-made river program is so produced.

In the Yongding River dozens of kilometers on both sides of the river, the Beijing Municipal Planning Shougang South Waterfront, Fengtai Science and Technology Park West, Changyang Peninsula, Daxing Waterfront Green Corridor, more than ten economic development areas along the river. In addition, Yongding River Basin will strengthen the land reserve, the above more than ten areas along the river, the future total land area will reach 5650 hectares, the building scale will reach more than 20 million square meters.

This means that Beijing's urban areas will expand into the Yongding River basin. Huang Yan, director of the Beijing Municipal Planning Commission, told the media that there will be a number of highways, railroads and railroads in the future center of the city that will lead to the Yongding River basin, and that Beijing's Chang'an Street and No. 1 subway are also in the pipeline for westward extension to the Yongding River basin.

The afternoon of March 12, 2012, Mentougou, Fengtai, Fangshan, Shijingshan, Daxing and other five districts of the Yongding River basin of Beijing, the mayor's hands folded together, they *** with the Yongding River green ecological development belt "five districts" joint meeting. As a result, each district has adjusted its regional and economic planning. Although the Yongding River project is still in the early stages of implementation, land prices along both sides of the river have shown signs of soaring, and housing prices have also risen. Although the Yongding River project is a huge investment, but from the perspective of driving the economy of the five southwestern districts, the Beijing Municipal Government does not lose money, only real estate appreciation, Beijing governments at all levels will make a lot of money.

Four years later, Beijing's man-made Yongding River landscape will be on the scene. Hopefully, while people marvel at this beautiful man-made river, they will also remember that it was once natural, raging and now dead. Beijing's desire to govern the Yongding River has always existed, but due to the inability to solve the water source has been put on hold. 2009 December held in Beijing Municipal Party Committee of the 10th Plenary Session of the seventh, Beijing will finally Yongding River remediation on the agenda. The Beijing Municipal Government is determined to rectify the Yongding River, the mother river of the city, which has been cut off for 30 years. Its goal is to make this river, which has been cut off due to overuse by human beings, have water again, and to restore the flowing water in the 170 kilometers of the Beijing section, especially in the 37 kilometers of the city section, to form the five lakes and the ten parks, and to supplement them with the ecological greening of the garden inside and outside the river, so as to make the the river to become a landscape again.

This extravagant plan for a fully artificial river will cost 17 billion yuan. Each year, the river needs 130 million cubic meters of water also all rely on "man-made". Such a huge investment, in fact, is a gamble with the flood - built in the river landscape in the event of one in three years above the level of flooding, will be destroyed. Moreover, a number of experts pointed out that this artificial landscape will not help to change the reality of water shortage upstream, downstream flow and water pollution.

September 22, the Mid-Autumn Festival, because of the "Lugou Xiaoyue" scenery and famous for the south side of Beijing Xiaoyue Lake, a design water storage capacity of the lake twice the artificial lake has been completed water storage. The lake, called Wanping Lake, has never existed in history.

In fact, at least three large artificial lakes will begin to store water on the Beijing section of the Yongding River by the end of October. According to Beijing's plan, the remediated Yongding River will be officially launched in 2014, at the same time that 1.2 billion cubic meters of water from the Danjiang Reservoir, which originated in Xichuan, Nanyang, will be brought into Beijing by the South-to-North Water Diversion Project.

This reporter learned that the Yongding River governance is divided into three sections, namely, the three stores barrage above the Guanting Mountain Gorge section, three stores to the South Sixth Ring Road plains of the urban section, as well as the South Sixth Ring Road to the plains of the countryside section of Lianggezhuang. The three sections are 92 kilometers long, 37 kilometers long and 41 kilometers long respectively. 17 billion management funds, more than two thirds of the funds will be invested in the 37 kilometers of the plains urban section. That is to say, the plains of the urban section of the investment per kilometer will reach two or three hundred million yuan. Such a cost, directly comparable to urban light rail and subway.

Industry insiders say these costs are only the cost of the project itself, not including the investment in additional sewage treatment plants for its water supply, not to mention the cost of the 130 million cubic meters of water used per year itself. The most questionable aspect of the plan is not the high cost itself, but the fact that the Yongding River, after such a costly treatment, is nothing more than a purely man-made river, not even a river, but six large artificial lakes connected by tiny streams.

The plan, called the Yongding River Green Ecological Development Belt Comprehensive Plan, has not been released to the public in its entirety, but on February 28, 2012, it was officially implemented. On that day, the construction of Lianshi Lake in Shijingshan District and Wanping Lake in Fengtai District began.

From the Beijing Municipal Water Affairs Bureau, Beijing Municipal Planning Commission information confirmed that the first phase of investment of 1.39 billion yuan, the main construction of the "four lakes and a line", that is, the Menchong Lake, Lianshi Lake, Xiaoyue Lake and Wanping Lake, a line of a circulating engineering pipeline. Next. The other two lakes, that is, Daning Lake and the paddy field lake will also be constructed.

Beijing's Yongding River management project involves only 170 kilometers of the Beijing section, will not affect the upper reaches of Shanxi, Hebei, the dilemma of water shortages and pollution, and will not change the reality of the lower reaches of the cut-off. The project's water source is not the Yongding River's natural water, but rather the water from Beijing's domestic sewage treatment; this water will not supplement the downstream water source, but will be piped back in and recycled before it leaves the country.

In fact, on top of the high cost of construction and the risk of flooding, the artificial Yongding River has a third luxury. The 130 million cubic meters of water required annually by the river is equivalent to one-twenty-sixth of Beijing's annual water consumption. The water required for the Yongding River treatment project mainly comes from recycled water and some rainwater, even if it is not utilized, the recycled water will be released for nothing.