Hechi makes great progress in environmental protection in 2020

In 2020, Hechi was committed to the belief that "clear water and green mountains are mountains of gold and silver". The city sought to firmly held the bottom line of ecological environment safety, striving for blue sky, clear water, and clean land.

All counties and districts in the city implemented this new development concept in 2020. They launched combined measures such as dust reductions and emissions cuts, and rolled out special measures to battle air pollution from enterprises and straw burning in rural areas.

The proportion of days with good air quality in Jinchengjiang reached 97.8 percent, and the urban air environmental quality of the remaining 10 counties and districts met the secondary national ambient air quality standards. In addition, Huanjiang Maonan autonomous county was awarded the title of "China Natural Oxygen Bar" by the China Meteorological Administration.

Recently, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment announced that Hechi, with its Longyantan Reservoir, Hongshui River, and Longjiang, ranked 11th in the top 30 cities and their water bodies in the national surface water assessment undertaken between January and December 2020.

In 2020, the city's "river and lake chiefs" system, which designates each river and lake to a special "person-in-charge", was fully implemented, making it the only prefecture-level city in the country to become such a national case study for this approach. Drinking water sources, river sections, and important river and lake function areas all met water quality standards, and the city of Hechi ranked top in Guangxi in terms of surface water.

In 2020, the city also promoted the construction of a pilot area for comprehensive soil pollution prevention and control. A total of 956 million yuan ($148 million) of special funds from the central government was granted to Hechi. All contaminated farmland in Hechi has become safe to reuse, and the safety utilization rate of contaminated land met the assessment requirements of both the State and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.