China's NPC deputies share ideas on environmental protection
CGTN

Ecological and environmental protection is one of the hot topics National People's Congress (NPC) deputies from across China have opted to discuss during this year's Two Sessions.

Luo Xiaoyun, a deputy from water-rich eastern Jiangxi Province, said "water resources should be used wisely to maintain the sustainable development of Jiangxi's economy."

With the help of various policies, Jiangxi has seen great environmental achievements over the past five years. High quality surface water accounted for 94.7 percent in the first three month this year, up from 81 percent in 2015, and rivers and lakes have become cleaner.

Poyang Lake in Jiangxi Province, east China. /VCG

Poyang Lake in Jiangxi Province, east China. /VCG

But problems still remain.

"Problems like inconsistent management of water resources among related authorities and regions, project water shortages and low efficiency of water resource utilization are still prominent," Luo said.

As a possible resolution, he suggested to take the protection of the Poyang Lake basin as a good start. More support should be invested in water conservancy project construction and infrastructure construction in the basin, he said.

Yellow River. /VCG

Yellow River. /VCG

Referring to ecological protection along the Yellow River, a deputy from northwestern Shaanxi Province said the next step is to highlight the construction and ecological restoration of the high cliff slope protection and flood protection of Yellow River's Hancheng section. Great efforts will be made to ensure that over 14,000 hectors of Yellow River's wetlands and 40,000 hectors of forest areas will be restored.

Meanwhile infrastructure construction should also be improved given there are few interconnected road bridges in some cities along some sections of the Yellow River.

Greater Khingan Range. /VCG

Greater Khingan Range. /VCG

Han Ku, a NPC deputy who works in a state-owned forest area in northeastern Heilongjiang Province, stressed the urgency and importance of ecological protection.

"President Xi Jingping has raised the issues of economic transformation and development, ecological protection of the forest and the livelihoods of forest workers, during his inspection tour to Yichun in Heilongjiang Province, on May 23, 2016," Han recalled. Prresident Xi once again stressed the importance of ecological protection which should always be one of our priorities, he added.

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