Rural environmental governance cannot wait; remediation work must be accelerated

"Spring grass grows in the pond, and the garden willows change to singing birds." The rural living environment was once so full of poetic charm. But an indisputable fact is that for some time the rural ecological environment has been deteriorating day by day, threatening not only the healthy and sustainable development of the rural economy, but also the physical health of the people, and even affecting the survival and reproduction of future generations.

Rural environmental problems encompass many aspects, from rivers to lakes, from wells to ditches, from farmland to hillsides, from fields to homes. In the past period, we did not pay enough attention to rural environmental pollution, especially pollution of rural soil, groundwater, and even water source areas, always assuming that the countryside is a vast expanse and a little pollution does not matter, that nature will absorb it. Some places, in pursuit of rapid economic development, regarded environmental issues as worthless. They thought that although there is pollution today, once development is achieved tomorrow it can be cleaned up later. There is even local protectionism: some heavily polluting enterprises, or even illegally operating ones, are not only left unrectified but protected by every possible means.

Some farmer friends still cling to living concepts and habits from long ago: livestock roaming everywhere, garbage dumped anywhere, sewage flowing all over. Some local governments are willing to spend money on urban environmental protection and governance, yet where rural environmental protection and governance are concerned, they remain indifferent and do nothing. In the eyes of some people, a dirty, messy and poor rural environment seems to be taken for granted. Therefore, whether in terms of attention or investment in environmental governance, rural areas are far below cities.

It is precisely for this reason that many chilling terms such as "cancer villages" and "pneumoconiosis villages" keep appearing. And phenomena such as surface water and groundwater being polluted, leaving farmland with no water to irrigate and people and livestock with no water to use, are by no means accidental isolated cases.

Do not assume that rural pollution is a minor problem. Who does not eat food? Who does not drink water? When rural water, rural soil and rural air are all unsafe, who can guarantee that the grain, vegetables, melons and fruit produced in rural areas are safe and reassuring?

Fortunately, the issue of rural environmental protection has been elevated to the national level. The new Environmental Protection Law, which took effect on January 1, 2015, explicitly stipulates: "People's governments at all levels shall allocate funds in their fiscal budgets to support environmental protection work such as the protection of rural drinking water sources, the treatment of domestic sewage and other waste, the prevention and control of pollution from livestock and poultry breeding and slaughtering, the prevention and control of soil pollution, and the treatment of rural industrial and mining pollution."

Although national laws and regulations are already clear, there is still a long way to go to put them into practice. The most crucial thing is whether our Party committees and governments at all levels truly attach importance to the issue of rural environmental protection, and whether they have the determination to treat rural environmental protection as a major matter, so as to restore and return our rural environment to its former self of green mountains and clear waters.