Sichuan Nanchong: Significant Progress in Environmental Protection Supervision and Rectification Work

"Significant progress has been made in rectifying issues through three rounds of ecological and environmental protection supervision," said Yuan Xinguo, Deputy Secretary-General of the Municipal Government, at the press conference on "Sichuan Nanchong City's Cooperation with Central and Provincial Ecological and Environmental Protection Supervision Work" held at the Municipal Ecological and Environmental Bureau on December 18th.

Yuan Xinguo introduced that since 2017, the city has successively undergone three rounds of central and provincial ecological and environmental protection supervision. In 2023, the third central ecological and environmental protection supervision team and the provincial ecological and environmental protection supervision team respectively entered Nanchong City to carry out the third round of routine supervision. During the third round of supervision, the city presented characteristics such as no negative typical cases, no major accountability clues, no unqualified petition handling cases, and positive typical cases.

Yuan Xinguo stated that Nanchong is steadily advancing in "adhering to ecological city development, accelerating the construction of a beautiful Nanchong," "adhering to systematic governance, continuously deepening pollution control," "adhering to green development, steadily promoting low-carbon transformation," and rectifying issues in ecological and environmental protection. First, the shortcomings in environmental protection infrastructure are being quickly made up. Since 2017, the city's urban sewage treatment capacity above the county level has increased by more than 400,000 tons, with the completion of three waste incineration power plants, a daily processing capacity of 2,900 tons, and an annual grid-connected power generation of 290 million kWh; three medical waste disposal centers and one large-scale hazardous waste comprehensive disposal center with an annual processing capacity of 82,500 tons have been established. Second, environmental quality has significantly improved. The water quality of the 12 national and provincial examination sections in the city has been 100% compliant for five consecutive years, and the main stream of the Jialing River has remained at Class II water quality. Atmospheric environmental quality continues to improve, and soil environmental quality is steadily improving. Third, the ecological barrier has been further strengthened. A total of 491 sand-related vessels were legally banned, 547 illegal sand and stone stacking yards were demolished, 48 illegal sand and stone docks were banned, and 56 kilometers of riverbanks were restored. The Jialing River (Nanchong section) was selected as a beautiful river and lake in Sichuan Province. Fourth, public satisfaction has significantly increased. Through the rectification of 1,845 public petitions reflecting environmental issues handed over by the central and provincial ecological and environmental protection supervision, a large number of prominent environmental issues around the public have been effectively rectified, and the city's public satisfaction with the ecological environment has ranked at the forefront of the province in recent years.

At the press conference, Yang Rong, Deputy Director of the Municipal Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau, and Pu Jiao, Chief of the River and Lake Management Section of the Municipal Water Affairs Bureau, also introduced the rectification of urban sewage treatment shortcomings and the rectification of the "unregulated river channel sand and stone mining, sand and stone stacking processing encroaching on the riverbank, and destruction of the Jialing River ecological environment" issues.

Authors: Tang Min, Yi Qinghai