New law to safeguard waterway, strengthen its governance

China's top legislature passed the Yellow River Protection Law on Oct 30 to further enhance the waterway's governance and protection. The law will take effect on April 1.

This is good news for Zhang Fei, who works at a Yellow River administration bureau in Kaifeng, Henan province. He spent the past 17 years building and guarding embankments along a section of the river.

Zhang's grandfather and uncle also worked to ensure safety along the waterway, and he learned a lot about the river from his grandparent.

"For generations, flood control was the major challenge faced by front-line workers on the Kaifeng section of the river," Zhang said.

The waterway zigzags for thousands of kilometers, carrying considerable amounts of silt. In the urban area of Kaifeng, the Yellow River poses challenges to residents' safety in the flood season due to its silt deposits, Zhang said.

He learned from his grandfather that the river burst its banks in 1953, when it rose about two-thirds of the way up an embankment in the city, putting hundreds of residents at risk. For nine days and nights, Zhang's grandfather led a team to repair the structure.

In autumn 2021, some areas on the lower reaches of the river saw their worst flooding for two decades. Zhang and his teammates worked on the frontline for a month to keep embankments safe.

"Since the founding of New China, large-scale protection of the river has been carried out and great achievements have been made in flood control. Still, in flooding seasons, we never lower our guard, in order to keep the embankments safe," Zhang said.

Flooding is not the only challenge faced by those living in the Yellow River Basin.

According to experts, the river and its basin have long faced problems such as water shortages, water and soil erosion, and a deteriorating ecological system.

The Hukou Waterfall in Linfen, Shanxi province, attracts visitors in November. TAO MING/XINHUA

The Yellow River is regarded as China's mother river. For 3,000 years, its basin served as the nation's political, economic and cultural center.

The 5,464-km-long waterway flows through a total of nine provinces and regions, feeding 12 percent of the Chinese population.

Great importance has been attached to the river's ecological protection and high-quality development, due to the waterway's economic and cultural significance, as well as its environmental impact.

The Yellow River Protection Law passed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress stresses the need for conservation of water resources in the river basin. It also calls for protection and restoration of the ecological system, flood control and pollution prevention measures, and the promotion of cultural inheritance, among other action to tackle problems such as water shortages and ecological fragility.

It is China's second river basin protection law after legislation on protecting the Yangtze River was adopted in March 2021.

Lu Dongfu, a member of the NPC Standing Committee, said the new law is extremely important and timely.

"Due to long-term human activities, the Yellow River's ecology has been greatly disturbed and damaged," Lu was quoted as saying by Guangming Daily.

Protection and restoration work has been carried out in recent years, but problems remain, such as excessive use of water resources, along with reclamation of the river and tidal flats, Lu said.

Excessive human intervention in the form of building artificial landscapes to protect the waterway's ecological system also needs to be resolved, as this work has damaged the river, he said.