Top: The dried-up Fenhe River in Taiyuan in 2011. Above: The same section after the completion of cleanup work. XINHUA
Wang Guishuan, a 68-year-old villager from Shanxi province, has lived near the source of the Fenhe River all his life.
He used to farm and raise poultry on land above the river's source, but a project to protect the headwaters took in that land. So, two years ago, Wang moved to farm on land below the source and joined efforts to keep the river free from agricultural pollution.
Hailing from Ningwu county, Xinzhou, he is just one of many people who are helping protect the river.
Known as the "mother river" of Shanxi, the 713-kilometer Fenhe, the second-largest tributary of the Yellow River, originates on the northern slopes of Guanceng Mountain in Ningwu county. It meanders through Shanxi before entering the Yellow River in the southwestern county of Wanrong.
The Fenhe, which passes through the Taiyuan and Linfen plains, is one of the main water sources for agriculture, industry and more than 32 million people in the province.
It was, however, once heavily polluted.
Last year, it was described as a "severely polluted" tributary by President Xi Jinping when he delivered a speech about improving the environment and protecting the Yellow River Basin's ecosystem.
Yuan Jin, an environmental science professor at Taiyuan University of Technology's College of Environmental Science and Engineering, said: "Shanxi has a severe shortage of water. Some of the main channel and tributaries of the Fenhe River once dried up as a result of overuse."
Self-cleaning is a major way for rivers formed naturally to improve their water quality. When more water flows in, the amount of sewage is reduced and the rivers become cleaner.
However, Yuan said that because of limited water resources the ability of the Fenhe to self-clean is poor.
Explaining why pollution occurred in the past, he said: "There was no runoff and the river dried up. The only flowing water was sewage discharged from production processes."
He said that with Shanxi relying heavily on the Fenhe for daily industrial and agricultural use, a significant amount of sewage was discharged into its waters.
To improve the river's water quality and prevent poor-standard water entering it, joint efforts have been made by the authorities, residents and enterprises on its upper, middle and lower reaches.
Last year, President Xi said that to harness the Yellow River, priority should be given to eco-environmental conservation, with the key being eco-environmental governance.
He also urged that different measures be adopted to match local conditions.
As a result, action has been taken in different areas of Shanxi to improve water quality and protect ecology and the environment.
Upper reaches
The Fenhe River flows through Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province. CAO YANG/XINHUA
The Fenhe originates in Ningwu county, Xinzhou city and the Yellow River also enters Shanxi in Xinzhou.
On the upper reaches of the Fenhe, restoration projects have been carried out to preserve water and soil. The work has also reduced environmental damage, ensuring supplies of clean water for people living on the middle and lower reaches.
In 2017, Wang, the villager who moved, opened a homestay, which has gradually received a rising number of tourists.
Wang moved as part of the city's environmental restoration projects. In 2018, the work to protect the upper and middle reaches of the Fenhe was selected as one of the national trial programs to restore the ecosystem, with the local project receiving 4.9 billion yuan ($721.8 million).
Projects carried out in Ningwu and Jingle counties, Xinzhou, included restoring the environment in and alongside the river, establishing a wetland park, greening the banks and mountains along the waterway, protecting biodiversity and restoring water sources, according to the Xinzhou municipal government.
A national wetland park－Fenhechuan National Wetland Park－in Jingle county was one of the projects. The park was established to prevent water loss and soil erosion, restore the wetland ecosystem and improve the environment.
Work on the park began in 2014, and last year after it passed an inspection by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the venue started to steadily attract visitors.
Covering nearly 600 hectares, the park includes 18 villages. Trees have been planted along the banks of the Fenhe to prevent water loss and soil erosion, and some 33 hectares of farmland have been restored to wetland.
Li Quanquan is one of the village farmers who have become rangers at the wetland park.
The 64-year-old patrols the park every day to check for fire hazards, prevent people shooting birds and stunning the fish with electrical equipment.
In May, Li ordered a man he found stunning fish to leave. "I told him the area was now a wetland park and catching fish was against the law. The man drove away," he said.
Li earns 10,000 yuan a year as a ranger and also makes 5,000 yuan to 6,000 yuan from growing crops, including potatoes and corn.
Sacrifices have been made by the county authorities, as closing businesses to protect the environment means they receive less tax revenue.
But one county official described such measures as "a good call and a sustainable decision".
The Party chief of Jingle county, Wang Xin, quoted President Xi as saying, "Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets."
Wang is setting his sights on boosting the local economy through tourism.
"Tourists from nearby cities, such as Taiyuan (the provincial capital), have started to arrive during weekends, even though the park is not fully open to the public," he said.
The park is about a 90-minute drive from Taiyuan.
Water quality at the Fenhe's source and at the wetland park has remained at Grade II, the second-highest level on the national five-tier water quality system.
Middle reaches
From its source, the river flows through Jingle and Loufan counties before entering Taiyuan.
With a population of nearly 4.5 million, and known for its coal production, the way in which the city handles pollution is key to keeping the river clean.
According to the deputy director of Taiyuan's ecology and environment bureau, in recent years, domestic sewage has been the main source of pollution on the Fenhe as it flows through the city.
Taiyuan has built a new sewage treatment plant and upgraded others to treat domestic waste to prevent it being directly discharged in the river.
The new plant, which was built in just 150 days, started operating in May. Since then, it has treated all domestic sewage discharged into the Fenhe.
Before it started operating, some 50,000 to 60,000 metric tons of sewage was directly discharged into the Fenhe every day, according to Zhang Jianwei, head of the city's urban and rural management bureau.
On May 16, the day after the plant opened, water quality at the Wennanshe inspection station on the Fenhe rose to Grade V. The goal for the province this year is to improve water quality to Grade V.
The inspection station is a national-level test center monitoring water quality on the Taiyuan section of the Fenhe. The new plant can handle 350,000 tons of sewage a day, and the city's seven sewage plants can cope with 1.25 million tons daily. However, they usually treat 1.1 million tons of sewage every 24 hours.
Li Guiqin, a Taiyuan native and provincial television station anchor, said: "According to the lyrics of a folk song, the Fenhe River is always flowing. However, some years ago, I saw that it had dried up and had no runoff. Now, the river is flowing freely once again."
Lower reaches
Morning exercises are held next to the river in Taiyuan. CAO YANG/XINHUA
After passing through the city of Linfen, the Fenhe leaves Shanxi in Wanrong county, Yuncheng city.
A State-owned cement enterprise has carried out greening work at a deserted mine, preventing water loss and soil erosion. This work has also resulted in wildlife returning to Yuncheng.
The mine, operated by Wenxi Jidong Haitian Cement Co, produced 2.3 million tons of cement annually.
Responding to a call by the authorities to restore the environment at deserted mines, the company began planting trees and grass at the site in 2017. It invested about 4 million yuan on greening 150,000 square meters of land, planting 20,000 trees and growing grass on an area of 110,000 square meters.
However, the greening process did not go well initially.
Zhang Shidong, a senior official at the company, said: "We thought it would be an easy task－just buying some saplings and grass seeds, planting and sowing them at the mine, and leaving the rest to nature. But we were wrong. Many types of grass and trees, including poplars, could not survive at the mine because of the water and soil quality."
The company tried several types of trees and grass before achieving success.
Now, the rocky terrain is covered in greenery, and wild animals－including hares, owls and deer－can be seen in the area, Zhang said.
At the point where the Fenhe meets the Yellow River and leaves Shanxi, a national monitoring station set up in August last year has started to check water quality.
Chai Ruiping, deputy head of the Yuncheng city environment and ecology bureau, said, "This is the final test for the Fenhe's water quality, as it's the last checkpoint before it enters the Yellow River.
"In the past, quality at the site was below Grade V, significantly affecting the water quality of the Yellow River," she said.
The water quality on most mainstream sections of the Yellow River is Grade III.
Chai added that water quality at the monitoring station has remained at Grade IV this year.
Yao Keyun, a professor of forestry at Shanxi Yuncheng Agricultural Vocational and Technical College, has visited the site several times in recent years.
"The mountains along the Fenhe River used to be gray and black, but now they look blue and green," she said.
The combined efforts have paid off. By June, water quality at 13 national-level inspection centers along the Fenhe had risen to Grade V. No more water below this grade is entering the Yellow River from the Fenhe.
After the Fenhe enters the Yellow River, it also passes through Shaanxi and Henan provinces, the country's main grain production centers, with respective populations of 39 million and 96 million.
As the water quality of the Fenhe improves, it will clearly have a positive effect on thousands of people's livelihoods on the lower reaches of the Yellow River.
