Southeast Asia Information Port News (www.dnyxxg.com) – The Sixth Session of the 17th Wuxi Municipal People's Congress opened on January 22. In his government work report, Wuxi Mayor Jiang Feng mentioned that over the past five years, the city has focused on building a beautiful Wuxi, continuously and deeply fighting the battle against pollution, and investing a total of 81 billion yuan in ecological protection and governance. This has resulted in the best-ever ecological environment quality, making the "watery charm" of this Jiangnan water town even more prominent and its "ecological beauty" further enhanced.
As a typical Jiangnan water town, Wuxi has a dense network of rivers and lakes, with abundant water resources. Ecological governance has always resonated with urban development.
Over the past five years, Wuxi has precisely targeted its funding to key areas, solidly advancing the new round of comprehensive management of Taihu Lake and the improvement and upgrading of the Grand Canal and Liangxi River, delivering an impressive ecological report card: The water quality of Taihu Lake in Wuxi has achieved a historic breakthrough, reaching Class III standards, making it the first of the three major lakes in China under key management to achieve "good" water quality year-round. Its total phosphorus and total nitrogen concentrations have significantly decreased compared to 2007, and its aquatic biodiversity index has reached an "excellent" level, ensuring safe summer conditions for 18 consecutive years. The average PM2.5 concentration has reached its best level since monitoring records began, and the percentage of days with good air quality has steadily increased, making "Wuxi Blue" and "Crystal Sky" the norm. The water quality of the Wuxi section of the Yangtze River and nine major tributaries connected to the Yangtze River has all remained stable at Class II, strengthening the ecological security barrier of the Yangtze River. The safe utilization rate of key construction land has consistently remained at 100%, achieving a phased victory in the battle to protect clean land.
Furthermore, Wuxi successfully completed the rectification of 60 issues raised in the central and provincial environmental protection inspections on schedule; strengthened basic governance capacity building, adding 300 kilometers of sewage pipelines and increasing daily sewage treatment capacity to nearly 700,000 tons, while improving centralized hazardous waste disposal capacity by 41.2%; implemented the "dual-carbon" series of actions, carrying out over 400 key energy conservation and circular economy projects, resulting in a reduction of energy consumption per unit of GDP by more than 18%.
Behind these impressive achievements lies a systematic, precise, and scientific governance strategy. Wuxi adhered to the principle of "three-source governance" (industrial, residential, and agricultural sources of pollution), with a total of 7,543 phosphorus-related enterprises completing standardized rectification; ecological restoration continued to advance, with the construction of two "ecological island" pilot zones, Changguangxi in Binhu and Longchishan in Yixing, accelerating.
Today, Wuxi's ecological livability is increasingly evident, achieving full coverage of provincial-level ecological garden cities, with forest coverage and wetland protection rates ranking among the highest in the province.
The "15th Five-Year Plan" period was a crucial period for laying a solid foundation and making comprehensive efforts to basically achieve socialist modernization. Wuxi has clearly stated its commitment to elevating the construction of a beautiful Wuxi to a new level, ensuring the stable maintenance of Class III water quality in the Wuxi section of Taihu Lake, and achieving the carbon peak target as scheduled.
As the first year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, Wuxi will focus on three key areas this year: improving the efficiency of Taihu Lake governance, accelerating environmental quality improvement, and enhancing green and low-carbon development. A new round of comprehensive Taihu Lake governance plan will be formulated and implemented, comprehensively promoting source control and systematic management of the lake and its inflowing rivers. The governance of Gehu and Lihu lakes will be strengthened, and the construction of land-based interception and water-based absorption zones will be accelerated. This will ensure the stable maintenance of Class III water quality in the Wuxi section of Taihu Lake and a steady improvement in algae blooms, achieving a higher level of "two guarantees and two improvements."
Simultaneously, the annual rectification tasks for issues raised in the central and provincial ecological and environmental protection inspections and the Grand Canal special inspection will be strictly and thoroughly completed. Environmental problems such as noise, oil fumes, and black and odorous water bodies will be addressed. The ten-year fishing ban on the Yangtze River and the requirements for ecological and environmental zoning control will be strictly implemented, and the "one river, one policy" governance of key rivers will be strengthened, resulting in the construction of 521 happy rivers and lakes.
It is reported that Wuxi will further promote energy conservation and carbon reduction transformation in key industries and resolutely curb the blind development of "high energy consumption, high pollution, and low efficiency" projects. The city will strengthen and effectively utilize its carbon management platform, expand the application of green electricity and green certificates, actively develop new energy storage, virtual power plants, and microgrids, and orderly construct 15 municipal-level zero-carbon industrial parks. The city will also focus on "ecology+", supporting Jiangyin, Yixing, and other areas in improving their mechanisms for realizing the value of ecological products. A new round of biodiversity surveys will be conducted, and large-scale land greening actions will continue to be implemented to continuously promote harmonious coexistence between humans and nature. (End)
