The Yulong River – credit, Qeqertaq, CC 3.0. BY-SA

Having achieved incredible results in improving water quality across the nation, China is embarking on a ten-year project to ensure the ecosystem beyond the shoreline meets similar standards.

The plan, unveiled recently by China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment aims to match improvements in water quality seen in 2,573 rivers and lakes across the country with improvements to the overall ecosystem in which the fresh water is found, including those which humans rely on, and the cultural artifacts located there as well.

It could be said that the protagonist of China’s 4,000 year history isn’t the Chinese people themselves, but fresh water.

From the moment that humans began cultivating rice in the central and northern Chinese plains, control and manipulation of water became the unifying feature of Chinese society, transcending social status, and imbedding itself into the lore of the first emperor who supposedly tamed the Yellow River floods in 2,700 BCE.

As centuries past, traveler after traveler remarked upon the inexhaustible supply of fresh water for irrigation, and of a network of irrigation canals that spread like a spider’s web as far as the eye could see. The Qin Dynasty completed the ancient world’s largest landscape engineering project when it constructed the Grand Canal, while 2,000 years later, the vast breadth of the Yangtze and Pearl rivers, following industrialization, allowed the Chinese manufacturing market to provide for every corner of the Earth.

Beyond economization and production, the lake and river were the subjects of countless poems and songs across the ages, and the constructions of bridges, pagodas, temples, palaces, and scenic villages where canals replace streets, on and around China’s vast freshwater resources, flourished whenever money was available.

In 2015, China completed an action plan for the prevention and control of water pollution, and in 2024, the proportion of surface-water sections nationwide classified as having excellent water quality reached 90.4%.

In this new action plan, the whole ecology of the riverine ecosystems is being addressed, and will include in its scope projects for restoring spawning grounds, ensuring migratory birds have access to food resources in areas where they alight, enhancing habitat connectivity and fish passage where obstructions are found, strengthening flood control and drainage systems where present, and measuring eutrophication in lakes and reservoirs.

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“The document marks another comprehensive initiative to protect China’s water ecosystems following the action plan for prevention and control of water pollutions in 2015,” said Liu Jing, deputy director of the environment ministry’s Department of Water Ecology and Environment.

“A beautiful river or lake is one where the ecological flow is maintained so that it never runs dry. Besides, the ecological functions of the water bodies and their surrounding buffer zones are preserved or restored, and biodiversity is effectively protected,” said Liu.

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“Moreover, pollutant emissions within the watershed are well-managed, and the water quality has fundamentally improved or maintained excellent levels. And the public’s needs for scenic views and recreational activities by the water are met,” she added.

“Significant progress” is expected by 2030, by which time it’s hoped the project will have also begun to reverse the current declining trend in aquatic wildlife in the Yellow River, and to accelerate the current improving trends for wildlife in the Yangtze.

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