The Dingjia River in Xinghua's Daduo town shimmers with light. [Photo/article.xuexi.cn]
Xinghua city, administered by Taizhou city in Jiangsu province, has leveraged its advantages in terms of water and ecology, which has brought more economic benefits to the city.
In line with the national construction project of "felicific river and lake", Xinghua has promoted the construction of 578 felicific rivers and lakes by end of 2022. Felicific relates to the promotion of increased happiness.
Xinghua has included the ecologically related economic benefits into its evaluation criteria, calling to promote more ecological aquaculture and the production of riverbank landscape seedlings in towns and villages, as well as landscape seedling production in city-level lakes.
In terms of species, Shagou town has chosen to breed fish that have fast growth and high economic value, as well as crayfish and crabs to help improve the water quality.
Elsewhere in Diduo town, authorities have combined river greening with water aquaculture. Since last year, they have planted trees and plants on both sides of the Digang River, Silinxie River, Jiehe River, and Zixin River. A third-party greening company is responsible for seedling planting, management, and sales, and the town provides the land.
"Felicific rivers are not glamorous decorations. It is necessary to develop river and lake production based on river conditions, so that the ecological advantages can be transformed into development advantages," said Feng Jianxiang, director of the Xinghua Bureau of Water Resources.