The Major Events of the Environmental Protection of Hunan Province in 2014

He Haijun

1. Hunan Provincial Committee of CPC and the provincial government approved of the Working Responsibilities Regulations for Environmental Protection of Hunan Province (Trial) and the Accountability of Responsibilities for Major Environmental Problems/Events of Hunan Province (Trial), making significant breakthroughs in the construction of environmental protection responsibilities system in our province.
2. On June 5, Secretary of Hunan Provincial Committee of CPC Xu Shoucheng and Governor of Hunan Province Du Jiahao jointly published a signed article of To Fight an Uphill Battle Against Environmental Pollution in the Spirit of Reform and Innovation on Hunan Daily to commemorate the 43rd World Environment Day.

3. Twenty-eight chemical industry enterprises were shut down and withdrawn from Zhubugang chemical industrial park in Xiangtan city.

4. Hunan Provincial People's Congress carried out a law enforcement inspection on air pollution control,  the Standing Committee of Hunan Provincial People's Congress conducted special inquiries into issues related to air pollution control to the leading responsibles of 11 major functional departments at the provincial level by a live TV broadcast.

5. From September 17 to 22, Governor Du Jiahao led delegations of provincial environmental protection industry , which was one of three visiting professional delegations, to visit Taiwan to attend 2014 Hunan-Taiwan Economic and Trade Cooperative Exchange Conference, the delegation.

6. Political Consultative Conference of Hunan put prevention and management of Xiangjiang River as the first concern, organize special investigation and researches and gave important suggestions on such issues as further perfecting working mechanism, strengthening implement of responsibilities, increasing financial investment and boosting social participation.

7. Changsha government issued the Changsha Medium-and Long-Term Program for Environmental Protection (2015-2030), established the ecological environmental protection committee whose director was presided by the mayor; Changsha municipal party committee and government held a conference of environmental protection, deployed full-scale work on ecological civilization building and environmental protection.

8. Environmental Protection Department of Hunan and Finance Department of Hunan jointly adopted competitive approaches to the approval of projects, and selected eighteen cities, counties or districts to carry out comprehensive treatment of rural environment in whole area.

9. The Environmental Protection Department of Hunan issued Plans on Implementation of Checking and Controlling Potential Environmental Pollution and Plans on Administrative Law Enforcement Inspections on Environmental Protection, 2014, and carried out the two working plans lasting for one year according to the principle of "taking charge by levels but giving priority to the local authority" and the inspection requirements known as "well planned, fully covered, and highly regulated", spurring the environmental protection agencies to turn their working focus to strengthening the supervision and law enforcement.

10. With the consent of the provincial government, the Finance Department of Hunan, the Environmental Protection Department of Hunan, and the Department of Water Resources of Hunan jointly issued Interim Measures for Ecological compensation for Xiangjiang River Basin of Hunan Province (giving awards or punishments based on the quality and quantity of the water), which signified an official start in giving economic awards or punishments to eight municipal people's governments along Xiangjiang River in terms of water qualities in their jurisdictions.

11. Hunan Provincial Federation of Trade Unions organized a skill competition in monitoring of water environment among staff from agencies of environmental protection department, water resources department and housing department. Thanks to the outstanding performances of the environmental monitoring competitors, of all the eight winners, seven came from environmental protection agencies, and Huang Bin, from the Environmental Monitoring Station of Zhangjiajie City, won the first prize in his own name.