Xinhua News Agency, Hohhot, September 18th Title: The beautiful butterfly change of "Zigzag Bend" — — Inner Mongolia has solidly promoted the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin.
Xinhua news agency reporter
When the flowing Yellow River flows into Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, a magnificent "zigzag" is outlined. The Inner Mongolia section of the Yellow River is 843.5 kilometers long, accounting for about one-sixth of the total length of the Yellow River. For a long time, Inner Mongolia has earnestly shouldered the heavy responsibility of safeguarding national ecological security, and coordinated the integrated protection and systematic management of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grass and sand. The ecological environment in the basin has been continuously improved, and the momentum of high-quality development is surging.
Green enters the sand and retreats, building a "gate" to prevent sand from entering the yellow river.
The Inner Mongolia section of the Yellow River is one of the regions with the most concentrated desertification and desertification land and the most serious damage. To control the Yellow River, we must first control the sand.
In early autumn, the Ordos Plateau, where the Yellow River flows, is still in full of green. In Xiliugou, a tributary of the Yellow River in the hinterland of Kubuqi Desert, the reporter saw that the trees and shrubs on the shore slope were growing vigorously, and sand barriers firmly locked the sand dunes. "In the past, there were flowing sand dunes everywhere, which often covered the river." Zhang Yongping, director of Dalat Banner Water Resources Bureau in Ordos City, said.
Xiliugou, which is ecologically sound, is one of the top ten Kongdui (Kongdui, Mongolian, meaning mountain torrent ditch) in the "Zigzag bend" of the Yellow River. The top ten Kongdui are all first-class tributaries of the Yellow River. Seen from the air, the ten holes are like ten sharp arrows, which penetrate hills, deserts and plains from south to north and go straight into the Yellow River. Since the 1950s, the sediment carried by the ten large holes has blocked the Yellow River for eight times, and about one tenth of the Yellow River sediment comes from this, which is one of the direct producers of the "hanging river on the ground" in Inner Mongolia section of the Yellow River.
In order to coordinate the relationship between water and sediment, Ordos City has carried out comprehensive management of the whole basin with ten large holes, and "prescribed treatment" for each of the ten large holes. Zhang Yongping said that in practice, the local government has summed up the comprehensive management modes such as "planting trees on the top of the mountain, wearing hats, returning farmland to grass and wearing robes on the hillside, building terraces on the hillside with belts, building dams at the bottom of the ditch and wearing boots". By 2022, the annual average amount of sediment discharged into the Yellow River from the top ten holes has been reduced from 27 million tons to 18 million tons, and the ecological environment has been significantly improved.
The control of ten holes is a microcosm of Inner Mongolia’s control of soil erosion in the Yellow River basin. Since 2019, 14.43 million mu of soil erosion has been comprehensively controlled in the Yellow River Basin of Inner Mongolia, and the area and intensity of soil erosion have been reduced. Not long ago, Inner Mongolia launched a full-scale battle against the "zigzag bend" of the Yellow River, focusing on solving six ecological problems in the region, such as sand disaster, flood disaster, salinization, farmland shelterbelt, grassland overgrazing and river and lake wetland protection, and making every effort to build an important ecological security barrier in northern China.
With water as a pen, draw a picture of systematic governance ecology.
How to protect the ecological environment of the Yellow River Basin in Inner Mongolia is directly related to the ecological security in northern China. In recent years, Inner Mongolia has continuously improved its governance system, and the "external value" and "internal temperament" of the basin have been significantly improved.
The harnessing of the Yellow River is rooted in the basin. In the past, there were cases of disorderly construction, disorderly arrangement and misplacing around Dahei River, a first-class tributary of the Yellow River. In recent years, Hohhot has implemented the comprehensive renovation project of the Dahe River to enhance the vitality of river space, expand urban development space and provide citizens with a good place for leisure and play.
Inner Mongolia has fully implemented the system of river and lake length, purified the "capillaries" of the Yellow River with "one river and one policy", completed the delineation of the management scope of 503 rivers and 67 lakes in the basin, and achieved full coverage of the responsibility of river and lake management and protection in the Yellow River basin.
Whether the environment is good or not, migratory birds know first. At present, Wuliangsuhai is rippling in blue waves, reeds are swaying and birds are flying. Wuliangsuhai, which is located at the top of the "Zigzag Bend" of the Yellow River, is the largest lake wetland in the Yellow River basin, and its ecological quality is directly related to the ecological security of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and North China. Since 2018, Inner Mongolia has adhered to the management of the grass and sand system of the lakes in the Wuliangsuhai River Basin, and realized the integrated and systematic restoration and management from protecting a lake to protecting an ecosystem.
Since 2019, Inner Mongolia has replenished 2.786 billion cubic meters of water to key lakes such as Wuliangsuhai, Daihai and Bojianghai in the basin, which has effectively promoted the ecological improvement of important lakes and regions. In addition, since 2022, Inner Mongolia has completed the traceability investigation of 3061 sewage outlets into the river, and all 350 villages within 3 kilometers along the Yellow River have completed domestic sewage treatment. After treatment, the water quality of 35 surface water sections in the Yellow River Basin in Inner Mongolia reached the best level in history.
Careful calculation, make good use of every drop of water to add momentum to development
The Yellow River Basin in Inner Mongolia is short of water resources, and the per capita water resources are less than 40% of the average level of the whole region. The prominent contradiction of water supply has become the main bottleneck restricting the ecological protection and high-quality development of the basin. In order to solve this problem, Inner Mongolia has made great efforts to improve the water-saving standards, calling for "all-round water-saving in primary, secondary and tertiary industries, cities and villages, and every drop cannot be wasted".
In the 10,000-mu high-standard demonstration farmland in Houjiayingzi Village, Bainijing Town, Dalat Banner, the intelligent drip irrigation system is accurately delivering water and fertilizer to the roots of crops. "Through regular quantitative and precise irrigation, the yield of corn crops has increased from 1,800 kg to 2,000 kg, but the average water consumption per mu is only 200 cubic meters, saving 150 cubic meters of water compared with ordinary drip irrigation." Ma Liang, the mayor of Bainijing Town, said that the project has set up two sets of pipelines for well irrigation and yellow irrigation, which has achieved a balance between groundwater exploitation and recharge on the basis of ensuring irrigation water to the greatest extent. "Since the third quarter of last year, the groundwater level in Bainijing Overexploited Area has risen by 1.3 meters."
In recent years, Inner Mongolia has fully implemented the principle of "four waters and four decisions", regarded water resources as the biggest rigid constraint, adhered to the principle of "making as many soups as possible", rationally planned the development of population, cities and industries, resolutely curbed unreasonable water demand, fought a tough battle for deep water saving and water control in the Yellow River Basin, and promoted the transformation of water use mode from extensive to economical and intensive. The completion rate of water-saving society in counties of the Yellow River Basin in Inner Mongolia reached 79%.
In combination with regional ecology and industrial layout, Inner Mongolia also explores the overall deployment of unconventional water sources such as mine drainage water with surface water and groundwater to "quench thirst" for ecological construction and regional development. Ejinhoro Banner in Ordos City, a major coal-producing county, took the lead in collecting and comprehensively utilizing nearly 60 million cubic meters of mine drainage water every year, injecting new kinetic energy into ecological protection and high-quality development. (Reporter Yu Changhong, En Hao, Yu Jia, Li Yunping)