China has invested nearly 100 billion yuan in pollution control, yet poor water quality remains a source of criticism

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　The National Audit Office recently released the results of its audit investigation, stating that after 6 years and an investment of 91 billion yuan, certain progress has been made in preventing and controlling water pollution in China’s \"three rivers and three lakes,\" yet the overall water quality remains poor. The average water quality in lakes such as Chaohu, Taihu, and Dianchi is still classified as Class V or worse. 　　Why has so much money been invested in pollution control of lakes in our country, yet the control results are not very satisfactory? At the 13th World Lakes Conference held in Wuhan recently, some experts pointed out the shortcomings in China’s water pollution control efforts. 　　Pollution continues despite efforts to address it; “Investing another 91 billion yuan will be useless.” As the economy in the Yangtze River Delta thrives, the water quality of Taihu Lake has declined by three categories: it has dropped from mainly Class II water in the 1980s to Class V and even worse than Class V. As the tens of thousands of enterprises in textile printing and dyeing, chemical manufacturing, food processing, and other sectors scattered around Taihu Lake contribute to the local GDP growth, pollutants are also accumulating at an accelerated rate. 　　Like Taihu Lake, Chaohu Lake and Dianchi Lake have also seen their water surfaces shrink and their water quality deteriorate, following rapid local development driven by fishermen setting up nets in the lakes, converting lake areas into farmland, and building factories. 　　Why can’t huge investments of nearly 100 billion yuan resolve the pollution in the “three rivers and three lakes”? 　　Wang Hao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of the Water Resources Institute at the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, admitted that first and foremost, there were deviations in the policies and technical approaches for lake management. “Focusing solely on water, it emphasizes the use of engineering and technical methods to treat pollution, while neglecting the establishment and improvement of management systems as well as water conservation and emission reduction at the source. Wastewater treatment plants were built, but their operation rate is low ； Pollution from the lake has been controlled, but pollution from land areas cannot be stopped. ” 　　Academician Wang Hao said that China has reached an internationally advanced level in key technologies for treating lake water pollution and controlling eutrophication, which has played a positive role in preventing further deterioration of the water environment in China’s lakes. However, by focusing solely on water body management without carrying out systematic watershed management to achieve integration between water and land, it is difficult to break away from the traditional economic growth model of polluting first and then dealing with the consequences. 　　“If the pollution control system and technical approaches remain unchanged, investing another 90 billion yuan will likely be ineffective as well; pollution will continue to occur alongside efforts to address it. ”Academician Wang Hao said. 　　Kim Sang-chan, vice president of the Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences and member of the International Lake Environment Committee, said that we need to seriously reconsider the approaches and technical strategies for controlling eutrophication in China’s shallow lakes. To manage these lakes, **huge amounts of money have been invested; 10 billion yuan alone was spent on Dianchi Lake, yet the results have not been very satisfactory. 　　Experts believe that traditional approaches to governance focus primarily on lake water quality, with water quality being measured mainly by three indicators: COD, total phosphorus, and total nitrogen. In fact, this represents only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the issue of lake eutrophication. To understand the true nature of Lushan Mountain, it is necessary to conduct comprehensive monitoring and diagnosis of its water ecosystem. First, it is necessary to start by regulating human activities within the watershed, adjusting its industrial structure, and controlling pollutant emissions throughout the watershed at the source, so as to keep them within the carrying capacity of the water environment. 　　Environmental protection investments have become a target for exploitation; up to 40% of the funds allocated can be cut. In interviews held at the World Lakes Conference, many experts and scholars believed that environmental protection investments are indeed an endless source of expenditure. 　　Wang Jinan, deputy director of the Environmental Planning Institute under the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said that in the past we have always emphasized the insufficient investment in environmental protection, but during the 11th Five-Year Plan period, such investment increased continuously, and it is expected to double further during the 12th Five-Year Plan period. “But how much of it is actually used for pollution control and environmental improvement? ”Wang Jinan said, “If we squeeze out the water, I think more than 40% can be removed.” ” 　　Reporters have found that in some places, river and lake management involves building squares, laying lawns, creating gardens, and even constructing golf courses; in some cases, concrete walls are even built on both sides of the waterways. In response, Wang Jinan analyzed that such “environmental protection investments” are more like “showy projects”; some of them not only fail to achieve the goals of pollution control but actually cause damage to the environment. 　　“‘’Showpiece projects’ are very costly; the buildings for sewage treatment plants in some areas are built on a large scale and in a grand manner, with the money wasted enough to build another sewage treatment plant. ”Chang Mao, director of the Institute of Environmental Management and Policy at Tsinghua University, said. An important reason for this is the lack of transparency in the use of funds for environmental protection projects, as well as inadequate enforcement of environmental regulations against polluting enterprises, which results in an endless and unfathomable demand for investment in environmental protection. 　　Worse still, the funds for environmental management have become a target for exploitation. An investigation by the Audit Office revealed that over 500 million yuan in funds designated for water pollution control was misused or claimed fraudulently; more than 3.6 billion yuan in sewage treatment fees and discharge fees was under-collected, misused, or retained. The amount related to idle assets in water pollution control projects exceeded 800 million yuan, and 206 sewage treatment plants did not have the capacity to treat wastewater as designed. 　　“\"Managing water in Kowloon\" cannot control even one lake. The data presented at the World Lakes Conference is even more concerning: over the past 50 years, the number of inland lakes in China has decreased by more than 1,000 ； Over the past 30 years, the area of polluted lakes in our country has reached 14,000 square kilometers… Zhang Yongchun, a researcher at the Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences under the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said that over the years, significant efforts in terms of human resources, materials, and financial resources have been invested in cleaning up these lakes, but with little success. Apart from issues related to pollution control technologies, there are also problems stemming from an inadequate institutional framework. 　　He said that before the introduction of the 11th Five-Year Plan regulations, there was no clear entity responsible for addressing lake pollution in China. “With the start of the 11th Five-Year Plan, China identified a clear **leading agency responsible for governance, but whenever pollution issues arose, they were attributed to ecological problems or natural disasters. In fact, many pollution incidents are caused by human actions, **yet it is impossible to hold anyone accountable; the main reason for this is that lake management is not considered within the context of river basin systems, as many lakes span several provinces and cities, making it difficult to determine who is responsible. 　　Qin Boqiang, a researcher at the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said, “In addressing lake pollution, technology is not the key; what matters is management. With multiple parties trying to manage the water, in the end no one succeeds.” ”In our country, there are many departments involved in water-related matters, including those responsible for water resources, environmental protection, fisheries, forestry, shipping, and so on. On the surface, this seems to involve the efforts of numerous departments, thereby ensuring coverage in water management, but in reality it fails to achieve the goal of coordinated water management. 　　Academician Wang Hao said that the management of water environments requires not only a stable and reliable funding system but also an efficient watershed management system and legal framework. It is necessary to clearly define the roles and responsibilities of different regulatory agencies, and to support actions aimed at protecting watershed water resources and improving the environment. The best way to solve the problem of multiple parties managing water resources is to have one entity take charge of it, thus eliminating competition and ensuring that no one remains indifferent to the matter.