(Source: CCTV.com)

Baiyangdian Lake lies in the hinterland of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and is the largest freshwater lake on the North China Plain. It also serves as a key ecological water body supporting the development of Xiongan New Area. Baiyangdian Lake once suffered from severe pollution. Hebei Province and Xiongan New Area have rolled out a wide range of measures and ecological restoration projects to address internal and external pollution sources. Thanks to coordinated efforts across upstream and downstream areas over the past five years, the water quality of Baiyangdian Lake has kept improving, rising from the previous inferior Class V to Class III surface water across the whole lake, and the lake is now counted among China’s sound lakes.

Zhang Yingli, 56, is a resident of Dongdiantou Village in Anxin County, Xiongan New Area. In the past, like many fellow villagers, he ran aquaculture in Baiyangdian Lake near his home. Three years ago, Anxin County fully phased out aquaculture within the Baiyangdian water area to improve the water environment of the lake. Since then, Zhang Yingli has transitioned from an aquaculture farmer to a Baiyangdian Lake cleaner, responsible for removing floating garbage on the water surface. In recent years, Zhang Yingli has witnessed the lake turning clearer day by day.

There are 102 lakeside and in-lake villages around Baiyangdian Lake, with a total population of around 245,000. To tackle the problem of domestic sewage entering the lake, 119 small sewage treatment stations have been built in these 102 villages over the past five years. The treated water generally meets Class IV surface water standards and is reused for greening irrigation and farmland watering.

Baiyangdian Lake is the confluence of nine rivers. To control external pollution, all villages along the lake periphery and upstream rivers have realized full treatment of domestic sewage.

Sewage treatment plants in 20 counties, county-level cities and districts of Baoding, upstream of Baiyangdian Lake, have all completed upgrading renovations, with their discharge water reaching Class IV surface water standards. Two large estuarine wetlands have been constructed and put into operation at the lake inlets of Fu River and Xiaoyi River. Adopting combined treatment processes including pre-sedimentation ecological ponds, subsurface flow wetlands and aquatic plant ponds, the facilities achieve a 60% removal rate of ammonia nitrogen in water.

For water quality monitoring of Baiyangdian Lake, Xiongan New Area has applied 5G technology to ecological and environmental management. The Xiongan New Area Bureau of Ecology and Environment has set up 16 5G-enabled water quality and environmental monitoring sites inside Baiyangdian Lake and at river inlets. Monitoring instruments conduct automatic sampling and analysis, and transmit real-time data back to the ecological environment command center.

Baiyangdian Lake is not an isolated case. With social progress, enterprises across various sectors are paying growing attention to operations related to online water quality monitoring, using water quality online monitors to help secure a safe water environment for us.