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Soil erosion area down 85% in 22 years

Writer:   |  Editor: Doria Nan  |  From: Shenzhen Daily  |  Updated: 2018-12-27

Through years of consistent efforts, the soil erosion area in Shenzhen decreased 85 percent from 184.99 square kilometers in 1995 to 26.24 square kilometers in 2017, the Shenzhen Evening News reported, citing official figures.

According to the statistics, Shenzhen has treated 132.3 square kilometers of soil erosion areas in development zones and repaired 215 exposed mountain areas, such as abandoned quarry slopes covering 7.46 square kilometers. Moreover, 33 square kilometers of forests have been planted to protect drinking water reservoirs.

Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, Shenzhen has been carrying out urban soil and water conservation with both innovation and determination, the News said.

Last year, the city amended the regulations on soil and water conservation in a bid to further improve the legal system around soil and water conservation.

From 2008 to 2017, more than 7,000 soil and water conservation project proposals were examined and approved across the city, and an average of 700 such projects were approved for construction projects annually.

The procedures for approving soil and water conservation facilities have been further simplified, and the approval rate has increased from less than 10 percent to more than 50 percent.

Since 2010, the number of construction projects for soil and water conservation facilities approved by the city’s water affairs bureau has reached 1,259.

In 2008, the bureau and Nanshan District Government jointly built a soil and water conservation science and technology park. The park, which was built on an abandoned quarry pit, is used for popular science education, scientific and technological demonstration, experimental research and technological exchange.

Covering an area of 500,000 square meters, the park is also the first demonstration park themed around urban soil and water conservation in China and has received 320,000 visitors since opening.