New policies result in notable achievements as province's authorities streamline protection processes and introduce internet-based solutions to the problem of policing pollution, Li You reports.

Jilin province in Northeast China has launched new policies in recent years to address environmental protection issues and has made significant achievements.

In 2016, inhalable particles, referred to as PM10, in the whole province fell 19.3 percent compared with 2015. The average concentration of fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, fell 21.8 percent.

The ratio of days with excellent or good air quality in the whole year reached 82 percent, an 8 percentage-point increase year-on-year.

In October 2016, the ratio of days with excellent or good air quality rose to 90 percent, significantly higher than the previous year, when the ratio stood at 68 percent.

The province has shut down 38 small enterprises that caused heavy pollution. It constructed 37 projects for water ecosystems and established eight breeding sites for rare species.

A new 400-kilometer wastewater pipe network has also been completed, causing the wastewater treatment rate in urban areas to reach 86 percent.

Local residents in Changchun, capital city of Jilin province, are noticing the changes in their environment. They described "fewer smoggy days" in recent years and "more blue sky days" at the beginning of heat supply months.

Enforcing regulations

In 2016, Jilin province carried out a series of actions addressing environmental protection. It designated an environmental protection month to enforce related regulations.

An inspection system was established to ensure public servants of the Party and government meet their responsibilities in cleansing the water and air, in controlling heavy pollution and in streamlining environmental protection regulations.

As a result, the government identified 20 new environmental projects and 26 arrangements for publicity work, setting the Green Jilin trend and promoting it among the public.

"As a significant issue in people's daily lives, our government will spare no efforts to defend the environment," a director of the environmental protection department of Jilin province said.

Integrated management

The local government has also made three major policy transformations, amid the backdrop of the whole province's focus on development.

The first change is moving from merely protecting the environment to using such projects to optimize economic development and transformation. The second change is transitioning from a model where the environment protection office works alone, to the whole of society lending its support. The third change is to integrate administrative management with legal frameworks, technology and market management, to enforce environmental protection comprehensively.

Jilin province's environmental protection department worked with the public security bureau to issue a joint working policy related to pollution, to crack down on related crimes and illegal practices. It is cooperating with Jilin Provincial People's Procuratorate to encourage and support public interest litigation on environmental matters.

According to Yang Keqin, chief procurator of the Jilin Provincial People's Procuratorate, up to Jan 31, Jilin's related institutions have dealt with a total of 337 litigation cases.

In those cases, they recovered 40,000 hectares of woodland and 39,000 hectares of wetlands, and shut down or reformed a total of 41 local enterprises that caused heavy pollution. These actions have saved roughly 200 million yuan ($28.99 million) for the country, according to official statistics.

At the beginning of June 2016, the Jilin provincial environmental protection tribunal was established.

In 2016, the tribunal investigated 983 cases that violated environmental protection laws, imposing total penalties of 63.78 million yuan. Among them, 58 cases were transferred to public security departments, sending a message and creating a powerful deterrent to illegally polluters.

Exploring new tech

To make full use of modern technologies, the local government has created an app to help it carry out inspections. Relying on the app, the local supervisors can take photos or videos when they notice any misbehavior or damage to the environment in their respective areas. The app uploads the photos and videos to the information platform and government officers in the environment department can read the uploaded information and try to solve the problem as quickly as possible.

"This supervising system is acting just like a telescope and the forward ears of the environmental protection departments, as it can help to supervise the problems that affect the public and solve them in a timely manner," said Zhang Guangjie, chief of Changchun's Erdao district environmental protection bureau.

In 2016, Jilin province eliminated 3,542 small coal-fired boilers and 133,000"yellow label" vehicles that did not meet exhaust emission standards.

The province established 5.56 million hectares of environmental protection red line areas, accounting for about 29.67 percent of the province's land area. These areas have the most important and valuable environmental resources. The protection policy aims to ensure that these spaces are not reduced, their environmental function remains intact, the land properties stay unchanged and the resources kept from overexploitation.

Jilin's government has set itself the target to make the good water quality ratio of Songhua River and Liaohe River basin reach 74.29 and 53.85 percent respectively by 2020. Levels of PM10 pollutants in the air are expected to fall more than 10 percent compared with 2015 by that time.

With these policy moves the province hopes to essentially eliminate heavy air pollution and help the province's water environment and air quality both see significant improvement.

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(China Daily 03/14/2017 page19)