21st to 22nd of July, Environmental Protection Department of Hunan organized the 2016 Mid-Year Environmental Protection Conference

The Party Secretary and Director of the Department Yaochen Liu presided the conference and drew some conclusions for it.

Managers of all the division offices of the Department and subordinate institutions, as well as the directors of all 14 environmental protection bureaus have attended the conference.

From 21st to 22nd of July, the Environmental Protection Department of Hunan organized the 2016 Mid-Year Environmental Protection Conference. The Party Secretary and Director of the Department—Yaochen Liu presided the conference and drew some conclusions for it. The deputy Party Secretary and deputy Director of the Department—Huilong Wang and other directors also attended the meeting. Managers of all the division offices of the Department and subordinate institutions, as well as the directors of all 14 environmental protection bureaus have attended the conference.

The conference started with the directors of environmental protection bureaus reporting the progress of environmental protection work of the first half of the year, the existing issues and future plans.

It is suggested that the provincial environmental protection work made huge achievements in the past half-year. The environmental protection institutions at different levels paid critical attention to environmental protection work, with ideological guidance and establishment of relevant systems. The general environmental protection structure has been basically set up with political institutions’ regulative monitoring, companies’ self-management and public supervision and participation.

The management of pollution in main areas has been developed further and wider. The water quality of the province has kept stable with some areas improved. From January to June, among the 98 controlling river sections, 96 are at level I to III, accounting for 98% of all the sections, which is 3.1% higher than last year. The 11 sections of Dongting Lake, 10 are at level IV, 90.9%, 1 at level V, and 5 have been improved. The comprehensive management of rural environment has also been facilitated. Moreover, the air pollution management has been promoted. In the past half year, the average proportion of good-air-quality days of all 14 cities in the province is 81.7%, 9.9% higher than last year. Particularly, the average proportion of good-air-quality days in Changsha, Zhuzhou and Xiangtan area is 76.4%, 6.5% higher than last year.

The monitoring and enforcement has also been enhanced. The provincial government proposed guidance on cleaning up illegal projects and establishing/improving planned, comprehensive and regulative monitoring network for environmental protection. The 14 cities, 139 counties, industrial parks and development zones committees all have prepared plans for establishing environmental protection monitoring network. It is also necessary to cooperate with Public Security Department of Hunan and People’s Procuratorate to monitor the environmental criminal activities, to facilitate the establishment of the stationed liaison system between public security institutions and environmental protection institutions. Also, it is important to explore and strengthen new monitoring and management system for environmental protection, and conduct pilot studies in Loudi, Huaihua, Chenzhou, Hengyang and Yiyang to obtain experiences for future establishment of the system.

The reform of the ecological culture and environmental protection mechanisms has been in progress. The environmental protection responsibility mechanism has been further improved. The source-protection and marketization of environmental protection has also made achievements. Meanwhile, the Provincial Government has set up a leadership panel for pilot studies for reform of ecological environment damage and reparation mechanism.

There has also been contribution to the economic structural transformation. It is critical to enhance the establishment f the environmental protection technological criteria and standards. Therefore, the “Repairing Standards for Heavy Metal Pollution Area” has been issues and implemented.

The development of environmental monitoring skills has also been enhanced. It is important to enhance the establishment of environmental monitoring network. There should be an assessment of all the existing air and water monitoring points/sections and deployment of soil monitoring points. It should also strengthen the training of environmental protection skills, establish and implement “Hunan environmental protection system staff training plan”.

Yaochen Liu mentioned that based on the efforts put in the past half year, the environmental protection work in Hunan has made great progress. However, there are still some disadvantages and imbalances. Some staff feel stressed about the environmental protection work in the context of a new trend in the country; some local institutions have not exactly transit the higher-level policies into local contexts; the skills of existing environmental protection staff are insufficient.

Yaochen Liu emphasized that in the context that massive attention has been paid to environmental protection from both of the government and the public, it is necessary to keep insistent and confident on environmental protection. It is important to understand the national critical policies and to transform them at local level with consideration of specific local contexts, to solve the outstanding issues in this area, to further improve monitoring and enforcement, to facilitate the development of leader groups and personnel, to enhance the relevant training of staff and improve the professional level of them.

All the directors of the Environmental Protection Department of Hunan have made deployment and arrangement for their own works. The deputy director, Biling Pan, has particularly made some notice and guidance on the issues about the identification of ecological redline in Hunan.