A decade-long project titled “Green Mountains and Rivers Project” is to be launched in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality to improve the environment of the Three Gorges area, where the Three Gorges Reservoir is under construction.
With 20.4 billion yuan (US$2.46 billion) investment for the next decade, Chongqing, the nearest metropolis to the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, aims to return more than 133,000 ha of cultivated land on slopes to forests or grassland.
The city will also plans for afforesting more than 667,000 hactares on barren mountain slopes, controlling the water losses and soil erosion in an area covering 10,000 square km, and establishing dozens of natural reserves.
Chongqing recently decided to take tougher measures to curb pollution that still threatens the ecology of the Three Gorges area.
The city is to shut down another 794 small enterprises that discharge excessive pollutants, ban any project that may cause possible pollution to the water sources, and move 100,000 local villagers to other places.
The environment of the Three Gorges Reservoir will not only exert direct influence on the social and economic development of the economic belt along the Yangtze River, but also be of great significance to the smooth operation of the reservoir itself in the long run, experts say.
He Guoqiang, secretary of the Chongqing Municipal Party Committee, reiterated the significance in the environmental protection of the Three Gorges, noting that Chongqing will do its utmost to turn the area into an economic zone with a sound environment.
(People’s Daily 01/30/20)
