A senior Chinese legislator has stressed protecting the Yellow River in accordance with the law and using the river to benefit the people.

Li Zhanshu, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, made the remarks during an inspection of northwest China's Gansu Province from August 26 to 28.

Li visited the cities of Qingyang and Lanzhou to learn about the province's progress in improving its ecological environment, wetland protection work, water resource utilization, cultural inheritance and protection of the Yellow River.

He also convened a symposium on legislation related to the protection of the Yellow River and heard the opinions and suggestions of relevant officials, deputies to the people's congresses, experts, scholars and the public.

Legislation on the Yellow River is an important task that has been promoted by the NPC Standing Committee in recent years, Li said, highlighting the basin-wide ecological protection of the Yellow River and its high-quality development.

Li stressed the importance of water and soil conservation, ecosystem protection and restoration, the prevention and control of water pollution, and water resource utilization.

Moreover, Li inspected a center for deputies to local people's congress in Qingyang's Hougongzhai Town and the workplace of the Standing Committee of the Gansu Provincial People's Congress. There he stressed the development of whole-process people's democracy and the role of deputies to the people's congresses.

The draft of Yellow River Protection Law is still under discussion in the NPC. Based on urgent needs for the Yellow River protection, the draft emphasizes the responsibility of flood control, restraining the overuse of water resources, the protection of ecosystems around the basin and the coordination between cities and departments along the Yellow River.

The Yellow River is known as the "mother river of China." Its basin was the center of Chinese politics, economy and culture for over 2,000 years. It is the second-longest river in China (after the Yangtze River), and the sixth longest in the world.

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