"The biggest problem facing China's lake protection is the impulse to grow GDP and build big cities." At the 14th World Lakes of Life Conference that opened on the 20th, Meng Wei, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, pointed out that the accelerated industrialization and urbanization have led to a severe test for the lake ecological environment.

According to the 2013 China Environmental Status Communiqué, 39.3% of China's national key monitored lakes have polluted water quality. Among the 31 large freshwater lakes, 17 are moderately or lightly polluted, and Baiyangdian, Yangcheng Lake, Poyang Lake, Dongting Lake, and Jingbo Lake are prominently listed, and the water quality of Dianchi Lake is heavily polluted. In addition, a large number of natural lakes have disappeared or shrunk in large areas.

Meng Wei introduced that 50% of China's urban drinking water comes from freshwater lakes, and 30% of the total industrial and agricultural output value comes from lake basins. With the population growth and economic development of the lake basin, especially in recent years, the continuous development of planting and breeding, tourism, mining, and industry and urbanization along the lake, the pressure to protect 'one lake of clean water' will increase.

Ji Weitao, the relevant person in charge of the water conservancy department of Jiangxi Province, said that in the past ten years, affected by climate warming and the use of water storage in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the hydrological rhythm of Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake, has changed. This has led to difficulties in drinking water for residents along Poyang Lake during the dry season, a sharp decrease in fishermen's catch, and the inability of ships to pass normally, threatening the ecological environment and biodiversity of Poyang Lake wetlands.

In the face of the increasingly severe lake protection situation, the Chinese government has put forward more advanced governance concepts and more complete governance plans. Recently, China has just launched a good lake protection plan, proposing to protect 365 lakes with good water quality in order to protect the lake ecological environment, so that China's lake water quality can be maintained above Category 3.

Dai Xingzhao, director of the Office of the Jiangxi Provincial Shanjiang Lake Development and Management Committee, believes that the ecological and environmental protection of lakes with better water quality reflects the adjustment of the national lake governance idea, that is, it is necessary to treat the bad and maintain the excellent. This move is conducive to reversing the "reverse policy effect" of the past when the heavier the pollution and the more attention it receives and the more it can receive state financial support, and helps to avoid re-following the old path of "pollution first, then treatment" of Taihu Lake, Dianchi Lake and other lakes.

However, to solve the contradiction between industrialization, urbanization and lake protection, we need not only to rely on pollution control, but also to explore ways of sustainable development in the process of industrialization and urbanization. In this regard, all parts of China continue to explore and accumulate experience.

The "Mountain, River and Lake Project" implemented by Jiangxi Province takes the mountains, rivers and lakes in the Poyang Lake Basin as an overall system for overall planning and comprehensive management with the concept of "the lake must be governed, the river must be controlled by the mountain, and the mountain must be poverty". In the process of developing ecological agriculture, Jiangxi has innovated a variety of models, among which the "pig-swamp-fruit" three-dimensional agricultural model has been promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture as an effective model of ecological agriculture in the south with the characteristics of high efficiency and environmental protection.

Dr. Zhang Limin, deputy director of the Jiangsu Taihu Lake Water Pollution Prevention and Control Office, said that in the economically developed Taihu Lake Basin, in order to control industrial pollution, more than 4,000 chemical enterprises have been closed, more than 1,000 heavy pollution and unqualified discharge enterprises have been shut down, and more than 2,000 industrial enterprises have been upgraded and renovated.

In the process of promoting urbanization, the Chinese government is also constantly reflecting and looking back, gradually realizing the significance of ecological civilization for China's future urbanization.

In 2014, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "National Plan for New Urbanization (2014-2020)", which clarified that the construction of new urbanization should adhere to the principles of ecological civilization, green and low-carbon, and fully integrate the concept of ecological civilization into the urbanization process. Reasonably delineate the red line of ecological protection, expand urban ecological space, and increase the area of forests, lakes and wetlands.

Meng Wei believes that the "new" of new urbanization is reflected in the emphasis on urbanization to give the city a "soul", which is the organic combination of the city and nature. He pointed out that there is still a phenomenon of "spreading the pie" in China's urban construction, but from the perspective of environmental protection, urban construction should be connected with the goal of lake protection, and the city cannot simply be made bigger without paying attention to harmony with nature. (Reporter Wu Zhonghao, Shen Yang, Chen Chunyuan)

Information source: People's Daily Online