March 22 is the 25th World Water Day and the 13th China Water Week. The theme of this campaign is "Implementing the concept of green development and implementing the river length system in an all-round way".

Ministry of Environmental Protection Deploys Seven Water Protection Work

1. Take the implementation of the "Ten Rules of Water" as the main line, strengthen supervision and assessment, and implement key tasks and responsibilities of local subjects.

The implementation of the Ten Rules of Water will be assessed in 2016.  To investigate the potential safety hazards of groundwater drinking water sources in rural areas around chemical enterprises. To urge industrial agglomeration areas to complete the construction of centralized sewage treatment facilities and installation of automatic on-line monitoring devices by 2017.

2. Take the implementation of water pollution prevention and control planning in key river basins as the starting point, strengthen the management of pollution control projects, and consolidate the foundation of pollution control in river basins.

To organize and implement water pollution prevention and control plans for key river basins and pollution prevention and control programs for coastal waters. Standardize the management of sewage outlets into the sea and carry out comprehensive regulation of rivers into the sea. The performance evaluation of water pollution prevention and control projects was carried out, and the results were linked with the allocation of special funds for water pollution prevention and control by the central government.

3. Take the revision of the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law as an opportunity to improve the standard and normative system and promote the work of water pollution prevention and control in an orderly manner according to law.

To formulate technical policies for ship pollution prevention and control, and promote the coordinated treatment of ship and port pollution.  Standardize the environmental management of sewage discharge projects. By the end of 2017, pollution permits for papermaking, printing and dyeing industries will be issued and a national information platform for pollution permit management will be established.

Fourthly, basin control units should be taken as the basis to coordinate land and water areas and improve the mechanism of basin ecological environment protection.

Efforts should be made to protect and restore the ecological environment of the river basin, to construct water purification projects of constructed wetlands according to local conditions, and to improve the environmental carrying capacity of the river basin.

5. Focusing on the comprehensive utilization of organic wastes in rural areas, we should cultivate and develop market players for rural environmental governance, and explore the establishment of sustainable operation and management mechanisms.

In-depth comprehensive improvement of rural environment will be carried out to promote the establishment of a three-level network system for the collection, transformation and utilization of rural organic wastes. Organize China Environmental Protection Industry Association to set up rural organic waste recycling technology and equipment exhibition area during China International Environmental Protection Exhibition in 2017; organize pilot counties and municipalities to carry out docking with relevant enterprises; select pilot counties and municipalities with obvious results to hold on-site meetings, and do a good job of typical guidance and experience promotion.

6. Focusing on Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, we should break through the bottleneck of water pollution prevention and control and give full play to the demonstration and driving role of key regions.

One is to organize the formulation of comprehensive discharge standards for water pollutants in key river basins of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. The second is to optimize the industrial layout along the Yangtze River Economic Zone, strictly control the new petrochemical and coal chemical projects along the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, implement major ecological restoration projects, construct constructed wetlands according to local conditions, and improve the environmental carrying capacity of the basin.

7. Encourage public participation and social supervision.

Supervise all localities to make the water environment situation known in time. Publicize the list of enterprises seriously exceeding the standard, and urge key pollutant discharge units to publicize environmental information. Strengthen propaganda and guidance, and establish the code of conduct of "water saving and clean water, everyone is responsible" in the whole society.