Cental China's Dongting Lake makes great strides in improving ecological environment

Photo shows a glimpse of the natural beauty at a wharf at the East Dongting Lake. (Photo/chinanews.com)

In recent years, the Dongting Lake region of central China's Hunan province has made considerable strides in improving its natural environment. Dongting Lake, the second-largest freshwater lake in China, is known as "the kidney of the Yangtze River". However, due to long-term development and overuse, the lake’s water level dropped markedly, with its wetlands being threatened by a sharp reduction in its area as well as undergoing functional degradation.

In March 2016, Hunan launched five special actions to tackle eco-environmental problems in the vicinity of Dongting Lake, such as pollution related to livestock and poultry breeding. Furthermore, the province issued a three-year action plan designed to improve the ecological environment of Dongting Lake at the end of 2017.

"Over the past three years, all the 1,139 environmental problems in Dongting Lake have been solved," said Tong Zheng, director of the East Dongting Lake nature reserve administration. Tong explained that through a series of measures, such as dismantling fences and redirecting natural water, 668,800 mu (44,586 hectares) of wetlands in East Dongting Lake have been restored and over 72 percent of wetlands have are now well protected, signifying significant improvements to the overall ecological environment and water quality.

Besides, Hunan has also promoted the construction of ecological corridors along the Yangtze River shoreline, restored 13,000 mu of green land and built three 50-meter-wide demonstration shelterbelts at a length of 10 kilometers, as well as basically putting an end to illegal sand mining.

Greening efforts also paid off in the wetlands around Dongting Lake – with more than 260 species of plants now thriving in adjacent lakes, rivers, beaches and meadows. Last year saw the overall water quality of Dongting Lake improve from Class V, as recorded in 2015, to Class IV, while its wintering waterbird population meanwhile expanded to more than 288,000, the highest in 10 years. The populations of finless porpoise and elks also rose to about 130 and 220 respectively.

"Beautiful pictures of egrets soaring, elks rushing and finless porpoises leaping have reemerged in Dongting Lake," said Peng Xiaocheng, deputy director of the water and ecological environment organ under the Hunan provincial ecological environment department.

Peng added that the ecological environment of Dongting Lake has been continuously improved, demonstrating a gratifying picture of lavish grass, abundant fish, a larger variety of birds and clean water.