Reporter Li Xiaochuan

River chief system contributes to inland river pollution prevention

Reporter Li Xiaochuan

On Dec. 10thof 2016, the general off i ce of the CPC central committee and the general off i ce of the state council issued the “Advice on the comprehensive implementation of river chief system”, requiring all regions and departments to conscientiously implement under actual circumstances. The Ministry of Water Resources and the Ministry of Environment Protection then issued the plan for the implementation of the Advice.

It is widely known that pollution sources of rivers and lakes are complex, and water regulation is also a diff i cult problem, which is mainly reflected in the contradiction between the integrity of water ecological environment and the fragmented administrative regions; which leads to non-cooperation and non-coordination in water regulation between regions; and in unclear authorities and responsibilities between departments. The implementation of river chief system for inland waters and lakes provides system guarantee for maintaining the health and life and the sustained functioning of rivers. The innovated system of multi-department joint management may resolve fundamentally the difficult problem faced by river and lake regulation.

One of the primary missions of river chief system is to strengthen water pollution prevention. Relevant departments have indicated that ship pollution prevention has been actively promoted, however, there are still severe challenges, which include the shipping enterprises’lack of awareness of water source protection, the level of green ship and marine equipment still requiring improvement, inland river ports’lack of commensurate supporting equipment, and the outdated means to regulate pollution from ships.

As the ship survey body to guarantee maritime safety in China, CCS has done a lot of work on inland river ship pollution prevention. For instance, the latest version of CCS Technical Regulations for Statutory Survey of Inland River Ships has improved the requirements for prevention of pollution from ships. In addition, CCS has introduced the rule system for inland river green ships, rule and technical standards for LNG, technical standards for solar energy and lithium battery. CCS has also developed the Indication System of Standard Ship Type for Inland River Ships. Besides, CCS has issued the Technical Evaluation and Affirmation for Inland River Exemplary Ship; to cope with the implementation of the Regulation for Implementation of PRC Vehicle and vessel Tax Law and the reduction and exemption of vehicle and vessel tax, CCS has developed standards to support the implementation under the organization of standardization administration of China and MIIT. Recently, CCS will take the opportunity of overall establishment of river chief system to continue to strengthen prevention of pollution from inland ships from various perspectives.