“50,000 cubic meters of silt has been cleaned up, so the water quality of the Western River has been improved drastically and pollutants have been cleaned up.” Zhao Yongbin, the  Deputy Chief of the Water and Marine Ecological Environment Division of the Zhongshan Environmental Protection Bureau, introduced the latest situation regarding pollution control to the joint inspection team composed of representatives from Zhongshan Municipal People’s Congress and members of the CPPCC Zhongshan Committee at bank of the Western River on the west side of Cuijing Avenue, Xiqu District on November 20th.

Zhongshan has been vigorously promoting the treatment of polluted water bodies, and 15 heavily polluted bodies in urban areas will be improved this year. 60 coal-fired boilers have been renovated in Zhongshan.

The Western River Regulation Project includes a series of projects such as a river sewage interception project, dredging project, waterfront restoration project, landscape improvement project, marine protection publicization project, and more. At present, the construction of sewage interception and underwater excavation dredging infrastructure has been completed. The main part of the project was completed by June 30th and is being further improved. By the end of this year, polluted sections of the Western River will be completely transformed.

Afterwards, the joint inspection team visited Zhongshan Rengo Hung Hing Paper Manufacturing Co., Ltd., located next to Zhongshan 3rd Bridge on the G105 expressway. The enterprise invested 30 million yuan to start a natural gas boiler construction project in 2019 to replace the original two coal-powder boilers. “After the natural gas boiler is completed, our chimneys will no longer emit white smoke.” A spokesperson for the factory said that the enterprise has invested more than 40 million yuan in the renovation of papermaking equipment to increase production and reduce resource consumption. Enterprises have been forced to speed up the their transition from coal to gas.