The newly built environmental protection facilities have become just for show?

Source: China Environmental News

Recently, a training course on rectification of supervision issues of central ecological environment funds projects was launched in 2024. Relevant officials pointed out at the meeting that the effectiveness of the use of central ecological environment funds is related to the timely realization of the goals of the "14th Five-Year Plan", the successful conclusion of the battle against pollution, and the people's expectations for a better ecological environment.

In recent years, my country has continued to carry out supervision of central ecological environment funds projects, and the performance of fund use has been continuously improved. However, there are still some places where the environmental benefits of projects are insufficient. For example, some artificial wetland projects have not played the expected environmental effects after completion; some small watershed management projects have built river retaining walls with cement "two sides", which cannot absorb pollutants in runoff; some overemphasize engineering measures and ignore the natural restoration of ecology.

pollution control projects are often overlooked in current fund project supervision, and the environmental benefits of projects are directly related to the effectiveness of environmental governance. To bring out the environmental benefits that projects should have, key links such as project application, implementation, and operation and maintenance should be grasped, and supervision and management should be linked to each other to ensure that environmental benefits are implemented.

To attach importance to the environmental benefits of pollution control projects from the source, we should ensure the first stage of project application and strengthen the review of environmental benefit indicators of projects entering the database. We should focus on key points such as feasibility study reports, performance target setting, and indicator quantification.

First, the scientificity and rationality of the project design, with a focus on the maturity of the feasibility study report. Projects that clearly do not meet national or local emission standards should be excluded from the database. For example, some air pollution control projects are not scientifically designed, and the target emission indicators are set higher than the emission limits. Even if the project is successfully implemented, it will inevitably fail to play the role of emission reduction as it should; some designs are unreasonable, such as rural domestic sewage treatment projects that design the treatment scale according to the registered population rather than the non-resident population, resulting in long-term low-load operation of sewage treatment facilities or "sunbathing" of equipment after completion.

The second is the quantifiable situation of environmental benefits, focusing on the rationality of the setting of environmental benefit indicators. The environmental benefits of the project should be set with quantifiable indicators as much as possible to provide data support for subsequent completion acceptance, performance evalsuation, and audit. For example, when setting the environmental benefit indicators of surface water treatment projects, you can refer to the "Surface Water Environmental Quality Standards" to set chemical oxygen demand, ammonia nitrogen content and other testable indicators. After the project is put into operation, the environmental benefits can be intuitively judged by comparing the changes in indicators before and after implementation.

The third is to take into account the overall consideration of environmental benefits, focusing on the efficiency and effectiveness indicators of the project. In terms of efficiency indicators, efficiency indicators such as project completion rate and time deviation progress can be set; in terms of effectiveness indicators, effectiveness indicators such as pollutant reduction rate and emission compliance rate can be set, and the project's benefits can be analyzed by combining the two.

If we attach importance to the environmental benefits of pollution control projects from the process perspective, we should ensure the implementation of the projects and strengthen the process control of project construction. Previously, some places re-compiled feasibility studies after the special funds were issued , greatly reducing the content of ecological environment governance projects, and adding landscape engineering, communication pipelines, parking lots and other construction contents that are not related to environmental governance. Some places bundled funds for other industry projects with special funds for ecological environment, but did not separately account for ecological environment governance projects, resulting in the inability to evalsuate environmental benefits. To this end, we should focus on strengthening process supervision.

First, strictly supervise the adjustment of project content. If the feasibility study report and implementation plan are adjusted after the funds are issued, they should be strictly reviewed and checked. If the project construction content changes significantly, they should be required to go through the entry application procedure again, and strictly prevent illegal behaviors such as arbitrary adjustment of construction content and failure to implement according to the plan.

Second, closely track where the funds go. In accordance with the principle that funds follow projects, closely monitor the dynamics of funds, promptly correct violations such as failure to make special accounts, failure to implement the centralized treasury payment system, and illegal one-time allocations of funds to construction units, and conduct timely inspections of project sites to ensure that fiscal funds are used in ecological and environmental projects.

The third is to track the progress of the project. We will urge the front-line ecological and environmental departments to effectively perform their supervisory duties and increase the frequency of on-site supervision. On the one hand, we will supervise the use of funds in the right places, and on the other hand, we will coordinate and solve problems in the construction process to ensure the progress of project construction.

To achieve environmental benefits from pollution control projects, we should strengthen supervision of the project operation and maintenance. After pollution control projects are built, they must be used well to play an environmental governance role. Some places focus on construction and neglect operation and maintenance , resulting in insufficient project effects. For example, the construction of supporting pipe networks for rural sewage treatment facilities lags behind, resulting in low sewage collection rates; some artificial wetlands have not implemented responsible units or operation and maintenance funds, weeds and garbage cannot be cleaned up, and the pollution removal function of wetlands cannot be played. In the face of such problems, we should focus on funding and responsibility.

First, guarantee the project operation and maintenance funds. On the one hand, the local government's expenditure responsibility should be strengthened. Environmental governance projects are mostly public welfare projects, which require the government as the main body of operation and maintenance. After the project is completed, the local government should be urged to fulfill its fiscal expenditure responsibilities; on the other hand, in the current situation of tight grassroots financial resources, actively establish a diversified investment operation and maintenance mechanism. For example, according to the project operation and maintenance situation, increase the tax and fee concessions of third-party operation and maintenance companies, collect operation and maintenance fees from the main beneficiaries of pollution control, etc., and gradually solve the problem of insufficient operation and maintenance funds .

Second, urge pollutant dischargers to make good use of their discharge facilities. In reality, some companies reduce production costs by shutting down environmental protection facilities. We should increase law enforcement efforts against such situations, so that pollutant dischargers can truly assume social responsibility. At the same time, we should strengthen post-project supervision. After the project is completed, the fund supervision department should make good use of auditing, accounting, discipline inspection and supervision and other supervision methods, strengthen post-project supervision, and ensure that the project is well built and well used.