Shanxi marches towards greener, cleaner future

Renzu Mountain in Jixian county is covered with trees. [Photo/Yellow River News] 

North China's Shanxi province has hit new milestones in terms of improving its local ecological environment in recent years. 

Among its more notable achievements, Shanxi has promoted ecological restoration by carrying out afforestation projects. For 2023 alone, the province has increased its annual afforestation goal from 2,666.67 square kilometers to 3,013.33 sq km. As of the end of August, more than 2,278 sq km of land has been successfully afforested. 

The province has fully implemented its ecological protection and high-quality development strategy in the Yellow River basin, especially its tributary, the Fenhe River. 

In terms of sewage treatment, Shanxi has strengthened the supervision of outlets that discharge sewage into rivers, promoted the treatment of sewage sourced from 14 economic and technological development zones in the Shanxi section of the Fenhe River basin, and organized the rectification of water pollution prevention and control efforts in provincial and above-level economic and technological development zones. 

Fenhechuan National Wetland Park in Jingle county. [Photo/Yellow River News]

It has also replenished more water from the upper reaches of the north mainstream area of the Yellow River, and maintained the water quality of the Fenhe River. 

As for the coordinated control of multiple pollutants, the province carried out ozone pollution control in the summer and the comprehensive control of air pollution in the autumn and winter. 

Meanwhile, it has strengthened its control of soil pollution risks, enhanced the comprehensive management of solid waste, and advanced the construction of "zero waste cities" in Taiyuan and Jincheng.

In the first half of 2023, the overall quality of Shanxi's ecological environment improved significantly: the average comprehensive air quality index ranked first in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and surrounding provinces and cities in terms of improvement; 86.2 percent of the 94 nationally assessed sections of rivers in the province were of excellent water quality, marking a year-on-year increase of 8.8 percentage points; and the safe and eco-friendly utilization rate of key construction land in the province reached 91 percent.