Fenhu Lake is located at the border of Wujiang District in Jiangsu’s Suzhou City and Jiashan County in Zhejiang’s Jiaxing City. The border lake caused disputes over pollution control in the past, when villages fulfilled their environmental protection responsibilities according to the central line of the lake and the river. Water flows and knows no borders, so the central line for administrative division can never stop the floating trash to traverse everywhere.
Shen Xiaohua, joint river chief of Fenhuwan Village in Lili Town, Wujiang District, said, without coordinated efforts, water hyacinth, an aquatic plant known for aggressive fast-growing nature, can spread to clog the river in a short period of time and seriously affect the life and production activities of villagers. Good communication and active cooperation, rather than finger-pointing, can help address the problem.
Since Yangtze River Delta started to move toward integrated development, Wujiang District, Jiashan County and Shanghai’s Qingpu District launched a "joint river chief system". In the new system, river chiefs at the county, town and village levels align their works with clear roles and responsibilities specified, such as regular patrolling and supportive response. Wujiang, in cooperation with neighboring regions, has so far hired 315 joint river chiefs, making sure all border lakes and rivers are under their monitoring.
In November last year, a plan on building an ecologically friendly development demonstration area in the Yangtze River Delta was released. The area spans Qingpu, Wujiang and Jiashan according to the plan. Then four towns including Lili were designated as the pilot zones in the green growth initiative.
The joint river chief system initiated in Wujiang reflects an idea of shared governance. Chen Wen, a researcher at the CAS Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology and also a policy advisor to the delta’s integration, said there is no shortcut to ecological protection. From a long-term perspective, the task is to find a systemic solution for scientific governance and management, and in this process it’s very important to embrace a collaborative regulation and apply more new technologies, according to Chen.
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