Approaching the "Pearl of the Great Wall" - Wuliangsu Lake

"Pearls are scattered on the bank of the Yellow River, the water and sky are one color for a hundred miles, the blue sky is blue and hundreds of birds are singing, reeds are swaying like a forest..." The song sings out people's infinite reverie about Wuliangsu Lake. Wuliangsu Lake is located in Bayannur City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. It is one of the eight largest freshwater lakes in my country and the largest lake wetland in the Yellow River Basin. It undertakes important functions such as regulating the water volume of the Yellow River, purifying water quality, preventing ice and floods, and playing an important role in maintaining the ecological security barrier in northern my country, ensuring the water quality of the Yellow River and flood safety, and promoting regional economic development. It is known as the "Pearl of the Great Wall".

In the 1990s, the water body of the Wulansuhai Lake area was polluted, biodiversity was destroyed, and ecological functions were degraded. The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region attached great importance to this and took multiple measures to promote the management of the Wulansuhai lake body through ecological water replenishment, hydrological monitoring, source control and other methods.

In terms of emergency ecological water replenishment, in the past three years, Bayannur City has used existing irrigation and drainage channels to replenish the Wulansuhai Lake with an average annual water supply of about 600 million cubic meters, of which 161 million cubic meters had been replenished in 2023, effectively maintaining the ecological water storage capacity of the Wulansuhai Lake and promoting water quality improvement.

In order to do a good job in hydrological monitoring, as of 2020, Bayannur City has built 28 fixed water quality automatic monitoring stations and 10 floating stations in the drainage ditches and branch ditches of the Wuliangsuhai Basin. The fixed stations monitor 11 parameters such as ammonia nitrogen, chemical oxygen demand, and pH value, and the floating stations monitor 18 parameters. All data are transmitted online in real time. Through the Wuliangsuhai Lake Area Smart Supervision Platform, staff can timely, comprehensively and accurately grasp the water quality of Wuliangsuhai, and clarify the pollution discharge responsibilities of relevant administrative regions based on comprehensive calculation and analysis of water quality data, and ultimately achieve precise pollution control, scientific pollution control and refined management in the basin.

In terms of source control, Inner Mongolia continues to promote the systematic management of the Wulansuhai Basin, plans to build large-scale sewage treatment plants to purify domestic and industrial sewage, and curb pollution at the source. At the same time, grid waterway projects are built to speed up water flow, strictly control the use of fertilizers, pesticides, and mulch films, and promote water-fertilizer integration technology to reduce external pollution.

Wuliangsuhai Lake in Summer

With the implementation of a series of governance measures, the overall water quality of Wuliangsuhai has improved. It is reported that the overall water quality of Wuliangsuhai has improved from Class V surface water in 2010 to Class V surface water now, and some areas are better than Class V. At present, the number of birds and fish in Wuliangsuhai is increasing, the ecological function of the lake is gradually recovering, and the governance has achieved phased results.

The comprehensive management of Wulansuhai Lake cannot be achieved overnight. It requires continuous efforts and long-term results. We must treat the mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grasslands and deserts in the Wulansuhai Lake basin as a community of life, adopt comprehensive measures, address both the symptoms and the root causes, and take the path of high-quality development guided by ecological priority and green development.

Review expert: Tu Qiang, deputy editor of Ocean Publishing House

China Association for Science and Technology Department of Science Popularization

Xinhuanet

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