The Maozhou River is the longest river running from southeast to northwest in southern China's Shenzhen City. It has shifted from the most polluted river in Guangdong Province to a typical role model in remarkable improvement of the water environment in China over the past six years.
Maozhou River was seen as a 'scar' of Shenzhen
Shenzhen's Maozhou River has a stunning new look today. It's become one of scenic spots for the locals and tourists. However, only locals remember what it used to look like and how it smelled.
With a length of around 40 kilometers, it used to be one of the most polluted rivers in the city, due to severe industrial pollution and sewage following urban expansion over the past 30 years.
"It stinks. Nearby residents could smell it from one or two kilometers away," said local resident Hong Yonglin.
"The rent here was very low, we used to have problems in renting out our land," said Hong Weijian, Party Secretary of Hongqiaotou Community.
Maozhou River was one of the most polluted in Guangdong Province. /CGTN
Since the 1990s, the Maozhou River Basin has witnessed explosive economic and population growth, with about 50,000 industrial enterprises and more than 4.5 million people living there.
"Due to the long-term lag of technical infrastructure, relatively weak environmental management, long-term overload discharge, the water in 44 tributaries was black and smelly. The Maozhou River was one of the most polluted rivers in the Pearl River Delta and was seen as a scar of Shenzhen," said Huang Haitao, deputy head of the Shenzhen Municipal Water Authority.
What's behind the change？
President Xi Jinping has highlighted the significance of ecological civilization and he stressed that "building an ecological civilization is vital to sustaining the Chinese nation's development."
Since 2016, Shenzhen has spent billions in tackling pollution in the river.
"We worked step by step to channel rainwater from sewage, filled loopholes in [the] pipeline network, and traced [the] contamination source, improved the efficiency of sewage treatment, built an ecological circle along rivers and lakes, increased water infrastructure, eliminated black and smelly waters," Huang said.
According to data from the Shenzhen Municipal Water Authority, in a very short period, Shenzhen has built over two thousand kilometers of new sewage pipeline network in the basin. Shenzhen's capacity of sewage treatment has reached 1.2 million tons per day, three times as many as before. This could be attributed to construction of sewage treatment plants, which reduced heavy burdens of nearby enterprises like Shenzhen Tsingtao Beer Asahi.
Wastewater from factories is directly discharged to the sewage treatment plant. /CGTN
"After the new national standard of sewage discharge was issued in 2020, our wastewater was directly discharged to the sewage treatment plant, as it needs to process and extract wastewater from the beer factory. So it is a win-win situation for our factory and the sewage treatment plant," said Hou Wanbiao, Assistant to General Manager of Shenzhen Tsingtao Beer Asahi.
Industrial wastewater discharged into the Maozhou River has to meet the national standard. /CGTN
So far, all of the industrial wastewater discharged into the Maozhou River meets the national standard. After comprehensive pollution control, the water quality of the Maozhou River Basin has been dramatically improved. It's become a wetland, inhabited by egret, shrimp, black fish and dragonflies that had disappeared for many years.
However, river water control is a dynamic process that requires long-term maintenance. Residents near the Maozhou River and volunteers from across the city are taking the initiative to patrol the river and provide scientific examination of the water quality.
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