Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Water Pollution printed and distributed

The State Council printed and distributed lately the "Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Water Pollution", which is an action guide to the national efforts against water pollution for now and for a period of time to come.

The CPC Central Committee and the State Council have attached great importance to the prevention and control of water pollution. Considering the urgency, complexity, toughness, and long-term nature of water pollution control efforts, the action plan highlights the idea of deepening reform and innovation motivation, holds on to the idea of systematic control and reform-based innovation, observes the principle of "prioritizing water saving, spatial balance, systematic control, and two-pronged efforts", emphasizes the key pollutants, key industries, and key regions, focuses on giving play to the decisive role of the market mechanism, the supportive role of science and technology, and the leading role of laws, regulations, and standards, and accelerates the improvement of water environment quality.

Apart from the 136 improvement measures and 12 research and explorative measures out of the 238 specific control measures, the action plan comes up with 90 major reform and innovation measures, which represented the new requirements for reform and innovation in the fields of natural resources usage control, conservation and intensive use of water resources, ecological conservation red line, monitoring and early warning mechanism of resource and environment carrying capacity, paid use of resources, ecological compensation, environmental market, inputs of social capital, environmental information sharing, social monitoring, etc.

The action plan proposed that by 2020, the national water environmental quality will have witnessed staged-based improvements, the patches of badly polluted waters will have been substantially diminished, the guarantee of safe drinking water will have been taken up to a new level, the overexploitation of groundwater will have been under strict control, the aggravating deterioration of groundwater pollution will have been preliminarily contained, the environmental quality of nearshore seawaters will have turned better from unchanged, and the regional aquatic ecological environment conditions of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Yangtze River Delta, and Pearl River Delta will have been improved. By 2030, the national overall water environment quality will have been managed to be improved, and the water ecosystem functions will have been restored preliminarily. By the middle of this century, the eco-environmental quality will have been improved in all respects, and the ecosystem will have been in a benign cycling. The main indicators are as below: by 2020, above 70 percent of the water areas of the seven key basins including Yangtze River, Yellow River, Pearl River, Songhua River, Huaihe River, Haihe River, and Liaohe River basins will have enjoyed excellent or good water quality (attaining at least Grade III water quality standard); no more than 10 percent of the water areas in the built areas of cities at or above prefectural level will have been black and odorous waters; over 93 percent of the centralized drinking water sources in cities at or above prefectural level will have attained at least Grade III national standard; the percentage of groundwater with extremely poor water quality across the country will have been kept under around 15 percent, and the percentage of nearshore seawaters with excellent or good water quality (Grades I and II) will have been around 70 percent. The percentage of sections losing their functions of use (Grade V standard unattained) will have dropped by about 15 percentage points in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Efforts will have been made to eliminate all of the water bodies which have lost their functions of use from the Yangtze River delta and Pearl River delta. By 2030, over 75 percent of the water areas of the seven key waters will have enjoyed excellent or good water quality, the black and odorous waters will have been eliminated from the built areas in cities, and about 95 percent of the centralized drinking water sources in cities will have attained at least Grade Ⅲ standard.

To those ends, the action plan identified ten major measures. First, to control pollution discharge/emission from all respects. The action plan comes up with corresponding pollution reduction measures for pollution sources including industrial, municipal, agricultural and rural sources, as well as vessels and ports. Second, to advance the transition and upgrading of economic structure. The phase-out of inefficient production facilities will be accelerated; the layout, structure, and scale of industrial development will be defined reasonably; and circular development through utilization of industrial wastewater, recycled water, and seawater will be facilitated. Third, to go all out to conserve water resources. The toughest water resources management system will be introduced, the total amount of water consumption will be controlled, water efficiency will be improved, the water quantity dispatching will be stepped up, and the ecological flow of key rivers will be guaranteed. Fourth, to strengthen S&T supports. The cutting-edge and applicable technologies will be disseminated and demonstrated; the basic research and R&D of advanced technologies will be enhanced; and the market will be regulated for the environmental industry, with environmental service industry put on faster track of development. Fifth, to give full play to the market mechanism. The water price reform will be accelerated, the water charging and taxation policies will be improved, the diversified investment will be promoted, and an incentive mechanism favorable for water environment treatment will be put in place. Sixth, to tighten the supervision on environmental enforcement. all sorts of environmental incompliances and irregular construction projects will be under severe punishment; the administrative enforcement will be more complementary with criminal and judicial stipulations; and the water environment monitoring network will be improved. Seventh, to substantially strengthen water environment management. The management over environmental governance targets will be strengthened; the total pollutant load control system will be deepened; all sorts of environmental risks will be under strict control; and the pollution permitting system will be introduced in full scale. Eighth, to go all out to ensure the safety of water ecological environment. The safety of drinking water sources will be guaranteed, groundwater pollution will be prevented and controlled in a scientific approach, the water pollution in key basins will be under further control, and good water and marine environment will be better preserved. The black and odorous waters in urban areas will be treated and have been basically eradicated before the end of 2017 from the built areas of municipalities directly under the Central Government, provincial capital cities, and cities separately listed in State plans. Ninth, to identify the responsibilities of all parties and have them fulfilled. The responsibilities of local governments for protection of water environment will be highlighted; the polluters will be mainly responsible for pollution control; and the State will evaluate the progress in plan implementation on a yearly basis for each watershed, region, or sea area, and urge all parties to fulfill their responsibilities. Tenth, to enhance public participation and social monitoring. The State will regularly announce the list of top 10 cities with worst water quality and the list of top 10 cities with the best, as well as the water environment conditions of all provinces (autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government). Social monitoring will be intensified, and a framework with whole-nation mobilization will be established.