The method used to harness the Fenhe River in Taiyuan, capital city
of
Shanxi
Province, will be spread to the whole world by the United
Nations as a model for improving the living environment. This
emerged from an appraisal conference of the Dubai International
Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment held
recently.
The 710-km Fenhe River is the second largest tributary of the
Yellow River. Due to years of irrational development and
over-reclamation, the river course in Taiyuan became overgrown with
weeds, badly silted and polluted by sewage and garbage. The river
basin had lots of barren hills, where the forest, grasslands and
vegetation had been badly damaged. Over 80 percent of the water
system was polluted.
In
1998, the Taiyuan municipal government started a project to deal
with the ecological damage and beautify the environment. Some 560
million yuan (US$67.74 million) was invested for the construction
of the Fenhe River Park. The project is an integration of multiple
functions, such as flood prevention, sewage drainage, environmental
protection, forestation, tourism and entertainment facilities.
Based on the original 20,000-square-meter oasis and island of
birds, the project involved putting 5,000-kg of fish fry into the
river, providing a 15,000-square-meter green site for residents, a
6-km green corridor and 10 open parks in different styles.
The project has had clear effects in purifying the air, controlling
wind and sand damage, adjusting the climate, increasing humidity,
improving sewage drainage and the water flow, giving impetus to the
development of tourism, promoting industrial structural adjustment,
and promoting regional economic sustainable development. It has
become a fine example of urban ecological and environmental
construction.
The Dubai Award is one of the highest awards presented by UN
biennially to cities that make outstanding contributions to
improving the living environment. Taiyuan won the award for
2002.
Baotou of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Gongyi of Henan
Province, Quanzhou of Fujian Province and Suzhou of Jiangsu
Province have also won the award in the past.
(china.org.cn translated by Li Jingrong, January 2, 2003)