The problem of garbage besieging villages urgently needs to be solved; rural living environment governance cannot afford to wait

Garbage besieging villages not only lowers the livability of rural areas, but also pollutes soil and water bodies, and its impact on food safety should not be underestimated. The shortcomings in rural environmental governance must be addressed at an accelerated pace.

Recently, reports about "garbage besieging villages" and "garbage besieging cities" have once again become a hot topic. According to media reports, in a valley next to a certain scenic area, randomly piled garbage has formed a small hill, giving off a pungent stench; the city may look bright and beautiful on the surface, but construction waste and household waste in far-suburban villages and "urban villages" are pressing in step by step, forming a new kind of "garbage siege."

Due to work reasons, the author often has to go to rural areas across the country for interviews. Objectively speaking, in recent years the environmental governance work in many villages has been remarkable: villages have cleaners, townships have garbage transfer stations, and rural environmental sanitation has greatly improved. However, because China has a vast territory, development between regions is uneven, and rural infrastructure is inherently weak, rural environmental protection remains a weak link. The collection and treatment of rural garbage is still a longstanding and difficult problem troubling rural areas, and phenomena such as "garbage relying on the wind to blow it away and sewage relying on evaporation" exist to varying degrees. In particular, in some areas there has also been the transfer of urban garbage to rural areas and cross-regional dumping, further worsening rural environmental pollution.

If China is to be beautiful, rural areas must be beautiful. "Beautiful China" cannot be separated from "beautiful villages." "Garbage besieging villages" not only lowers the livability of rural areas, but also causes serious pollution to rural soil and water bodies. "Only with clean soil can there be clean food." This garbage not only affects the rural environment and farmers' health, but its impact on food safety also should not be underestimated. According to the relevant departments' plan for rural garbage governance, by 2020, when a moderately prosperous society in all respects is fully built, more than 90% of villages nationwide will have their household garbage effectively treated. Yet according to statistics from the Ministry of Environmental Protection, of the more than 9 billion tons of domestic sewage and 280 million tons of household garbage produced in China's rural areas each year, much is discharged randomly without effective treatment. Therefore, solving "garbage besieging villages" cannot afford to wait, nor can it be slow.

To solve "garbage besieging villages" and make up for the shortcomings in rural environmental governance, the first step should be to make up for the shortcomings in thinking and understanding. Rural environmental governance must be considered within the overall context of ecological civilization construction, and real attention must be paid to "small matters" such as rural garbage treatment. In building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, urban and rural areas cannot be separated; in ecological and environmental governance, the mindset of "valuing cities and neglecting rural areas" must be overcome, and the gap between urban and rural environmental sanitation must not be allowed to grow wider and wider.

To solve "garbage besieging villages," both the government and the market need to work together. From the government perspective, China's investment in rural garbage governance has long been insufficient, and management systems are relatively weak. At present, there is an urgent need to improve the institutional mechanisms for rural garbage governance, clarify the responsible entities and the supervision and accountability mechanisms, and establish and improve mechanisms for fundraising and investment. Investment must be continuously increased, and infrastructure construction must be pushed to favor rural areas. Through various preferential policies such as taxation, finance, and land use, social capital should be guided to participate. From the market-oriented perspective, diversified financing mechanisms can be established to broaden the channels for raising funds for rural garbage governance. Practice in many places has proven that, as long as they are handled properly, rural waste such as straw, dead branches and fallen leaves, and livestock manure can all be converted into resources. These especially require market-based operations by enterprises.

To solve "garbage besieging villages," it is also necessary to adapt measures to local conditions and not adopt a "one-size-fits-all" approach. Safe, reliable, economical, and applicable treatment technologies should be selected according to the specific conditions of rural areas. In some places with developed economies and convenient transportation, an "urban-rural integration" governance model can be adopted; more remote areas should explore dispersed and small-scale models for garbage collection and treatment. Attention should also be paid to summarizing experience, increasing publicity and guidance, respecting the people's pioneering spirit, and fully mobilizing the enthusiasm of all parties to participate in rural garbage governance.