Aerial photo taken on Oct 10, 2022 shows waterfowls in the lower reach of the Yellow River in Gaoqing County, east China's Shandong Province. Photo:Xinhua

 

China has passed a law to protect its "mother river," targeting prominent problems of the Yellow River such as fragile ecological environment, water shortage, flood threat and inadequate high-quality development.  

After three rounds of China's top legislature deliberation which initially started on December 20 in 2021, the Yellow River Protection Law was ratified by the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress (NPC Standing Committee) on Sunday and will come into effect on April 1 in 2023. 

The law was made to strengthen the Yellow River basin's ecological protection and promote the river's calm and harmlessness, the efficiency and intensive use of water resources, high-quality development as well as its historic culture, said the first general provision of the law. 

As the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River has become a major national strategy since the 18 National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, the Yellow River Protection Law closely focuses on the main specific contradictions and problems and make specific requirements on solving these problems, said Yuan Jie, an official at the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee on Sunday.

"For example, to solve the biggest problems of the Yellow River: fragile ecological environment, the law requires targeted measures on different kinds of problems in accordance with basin areas, such as headwaters, loess plateau and estuary. It also made provisions on the river's ecological flow, lake water level, biodiversity conservation, fishing ban period in key waters, over-exploration of groundwater and ecological restoration of mines," Yuan said. 

The law also highlighted anti-pollution measures, said Yuan, listing requirements in monitoring of toxic chemical substances, especially new pollutants, as well as water quality standards and water pollutant discharge standards. 

Guided by an outline document on the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River basin which was made in October in 2021, the Yellow River Protection Law is China's second river-basin legislation after the law to protect China's longest river, Yangtze, was passed on December 26 in 2020. All this shows that China has ramped up efforts in recent years in protecting the ecological environment in its river basins.