The February wind sweeps across the Yangtze River and blows toward the lakes on both banks.

In Hefei, Anhui, spring is quietly stirring in the reed beds of the Shibalianwei wetland. Flocks of egrets streak across the sky, leaving ripples on the water. Photographers crouch on the shore, holding their breath; with each shutter click they freeze the "birds’ choices".

In Yueyang, Hunan, spring tides rise over the mudflats of East Dongting Lake. Drones skim the water, and on film gray‑black shapes surge through the waves — the “smiling angels,” finless porpoises, have returned early, scattering tiny splashes.

One at the shore of Chaohu, the other beside Dongting — separated by hundreds of kilometers, yet responding to the same call of the age: to “protect the clear waters of the river.”

During the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, as we turn our gaze again to these two “pearls” of the middle Yangtze, we find that Chaohu and Dongting Lake are, by different means, jointly writing the same chapter of ecological restoration: people and lakes coexisting.

In a sense, the wings of migratory birds are redefining the scale of political achievements, and the porpoise’s smile quietly testifies to the quality of development. When a lake’s clarity is no longer merely figures on a report but becomes an experience passed from mouth to mouth by ordinary people and a scene pursued by photographers’ lenses — then the stories of these two lakes have transcended pollution control itself and become a window into observing the political‑performance outlook of the new era.

Pollution control: two lakes, two breakthroughs

Rewind a few years: Chaohu did not always leave pleasant memories for Hefei’s residents.

“At that time in summer we didn’t dare open windows by the lake; the smell of blue‑green algae gave us headaches.” Mr. Liu, who lives in Binhu New Area, Hefei, personally witnessed Chaohu’s “ecological wounds.” With municipal sewage inflows and agricultural nonpoint pollution, Chaohu’s water quality once plunged to a low point.

Change began with a concerted campaign to “declare war on blue‑green algae.”

Years later, in 2025, Chaohu achieved a historic breakthrough. Monitoring data show the lake’s overall water quality remained stably at Category IV, while the eastern half of the lake improved to Category III for the first time — a historic milestone; the maximum area of blue‑green algal blooms was 97.65 square kilometers, and the cumulative occurrence area was 1,251.97 square kilometers, decreases of 62.5% and 58.5% respectively compared with the end of the 13th Five‑Year Plan.

Through scientific scheduling and precise prevention and control, Chaohu has for five consecutive years prevented blue‑green algae from concentrating along the shoreline and eliminated noticeable odors in the lake area, effectively improving the lakeside ecological environment and residents’ experience of accessing the water.

Behind this lies a rigorous governance system. On the command screen of Hefei’s Ecological Environment Bureau, a “land‑sky‑space” integrated monitoring network operates 24/7 — satellite remote sensing, ground monitoring stations, and drone patrols leave blue‑green algae nowhere to hide. All 39 inflowing rivers around the lake have been cleared of Category V water bodies, cutting pollution inputs at the source.

But Chaohu’s breakthrough relies not only on technology; institutional innovation is equally noteworthy.

Previously, longstanding problems such as illegal shoreline construction and unlawful sewage discharge often fell into a governance deadlock due to overlapping jurisdictions. Hefei’s Discipline Inspection Commission and Supervisory Committee established a Chaohu comprehensive governance disciplinary‑inspection collaboration zone to coordinate supervisory forces across regions and departments, and created a “dynamic database of clues for Chaohu comprehensive governance issues.” Since last year, related disciplinary and illegal cases have been dealt with sternly, resulting in 37 party and administrative penalties.

“We have deepened the collaborative supervision model to target and resolve the problem of overlapping authorities in shoreline management,” said Cui Shiping, Executive Deputy Secretary of Hefei’s Discipline Inspection Commission and Deputy Director of the Supervisory Committee.

At Dongting Lake, the approach to governance carried the determination of a decisive, painful cut.

“At that time the lake was full of low enclosures and net cages, fragmenting it into pieces.” An old fisherman in Yuanjiang, Hunan, lamented past overfishing. In just a few years, Yuanjiang removed 222 low enclosures, reclaiming a total of 336,000 mu (about 22,400 hectares), and restoring 16,700 mu (about 1,113 hectares) of wetlands in Xiase Lake.

The formerly noisy Hualong Wharf in Yueyang’s Junshan was completely shut down. After 33,000 square meters of ecological restoration, it became a “smile home” for finless porpoises. A gravel terminal transformed into a viewing platform, and cargo ships turned into bird‑watching boats for tourists.

Dongting Lake also answered its efforts with numbers: in January this year, 484,300 overwintering waterbirds were recorded across the province, a 12.7% increase year‑on‑year and the highest figure on record.

Restoration: the Shibalianwei “sample” and the metamorphosis of Donggu Lake

If removing pollution is subtraction, ecological restoration is a subtle exercise in addition.

On the northwest shore of Chaohu, a 27.6‑square‑kilometer wetland is becoming an “innovation sample” in China’s water conservancy engineering — the Shibalianwei ecological wetland flood storage area.

From a high vantage, the flood gates in faux‑Tang architectural style stand tall. This is not merely a wetland but the country’s first flood storage area with ecological functions. The gate can store 109 million cubic meters of floodwater in three days and empty in nine days, lowering the flood level in Hefei’s main urban area by about 20 centimeters.

The ingenious design treats floodwater not as a beast but as a nutrient. Shibalianwei builds “ecological infiltration islands” to solidify pond sediments in place, plant trees whose roots absorb nitrogen and phosphorus; it purifies an average of 800,000 cubic meters of Nanfeihe River water daily, with outflow quality better than inflow.

In April 2024, the third phase of Shibalianwei wetland restoration was selected as an outstanding case in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. From a former fishery created by enclosing the lake to an “international example,” Chaohu’s wetland turnaround proves the possibility of city‑lake co‑prosperity.

At Dongting Lake, the story of ecological restoration carries a warm, everyday humanity.

Donggu Lake in the Quyuan Management District of Yueyang is a typical case. In the past, the wetland here was partitioned by concentric embankments; low‑lying areas were converted to farmland and sewage discharged directly into the lake. Enclosing the lake for land reclamation and pesticide overuse once severed the millennia‑old bird migratory route across Donggu Lake.

The turning point began with an ecological governance campaign in 2018.

Climb the No. 3 river weir: agricultural runoff that was once turbid is intercepted by the dam and diverted into wetland purification strips on both sides; after passing through an “ecological filter” of reeds and reedmace, it flows into Donggu Lake clear and bright.

“This dam can intercept 30,000 tons of agricultural non-point pollution daily; over a year the purified volume exceeds ten million tons, cutting off the path of sewage entering the lake at the source,” said Long Yong, a volunteer in Yingtian Town, Quyuan Management District, Yueyang.

The locality invested more than 7 million yuan, using 360 mu (about 24 hectares) of low‑lying wetlands and poor‑quality fields to implement fallow‑to‑forest and wetland restoration projects; by removing original embankments and reconstructing natural water systems, the wetlands regained their breathing function.

In 2024, the Donggu Lake ecological governance project was named one of Hunan Province’s “Top Ten Exemplary Cases” in territorial restoration, with water quality stabilized at Category II–III.

Lakeside development used to be a visible “achievement,” while ecological governance is an often unseen “background.” Both lakes independently chose the latter. Behind these measures also reflects a profound shift in the outlook on political achievement.

People: after coming ashore, life unfolds like the lake

All governance ultimately comes down to people.

Data are the best proof: in 2024 alone, Changlinhe Town received 3.8 million visitors, and tourism revenue exceeded 210 million yuan. Those clear waves have turned into real money flowing into residents’ pockets. This tangible sense of gain is the warmest footnote to the political‑achievement outlook.

Dongting Lake’s “coming ashore” stories carry more resilience and warmth.

In Junshan District’s Liumenzha community, the Xiong Yulan family were once professional fishers with no land. After coming ashore, they were at a loss about livelihoods. The turning point came with “one fish.” The local government guided fishers to switch to producing air‑dried fish and successfully applied for a national geographic indication. Xiong Yulan’s family’s dried fish are now sold nationwide via e‑commerce livestreaming.

“It’s busiest before the Spring Festival; we can sell over 2,000 jin (about 1,000 kg) in a day!” Today Liumenzha’s fish‑drying corridor are a distinctive sight.

As of January 2026, Donggu Lake has attracted over 200,000 visitors, and villagers have increased incomes through ecotourism, forming a virtuous cycle of “protecting birds and enriching people.”

Spring 2026 has arrived. Looking back at the governance paths of Chaohu and Dongting, they offer different answers to the same challenge of our era:

Chaohu used hard‑core technological and institutional innovations to achieve, for the first time, Category III water quality in the eastern half; Dongting combined iron‑fisted pollution control with soft coexistence to bring back 480,000 migratory birds in flight. One in Anhui, the other in Hunan — different paths, same destination.

Behind it is the rooting of the “joint effort for major protection” in the middle Yangtze. It is more than the ripple of clear lake surfaces; it concerns the livelihoods of people along the shore: “Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets.” This phrase is written not just in documents but into the wings of migratory birds, the measure of lake water, and the smiles of transformed fishers.

This, then, is the best answer the Yangtze has given us.

Reporter’s note: the convergent transformation of the “lucid waters and lush mountains”

Looking back at Chaohu and Dongting, their paths are not identical.

Chaohu is more like an engineer, using hard‑core technological and institutional innovation to construct a precise water‑management network. Dongting is more like an artful youth, painting a warm tableau of coexistence among people, fish, and birds atop a foundation of firm pollution control.

From the return of migratory birds to Donggu Lake, to the air‑dried fish of Liumenzha, from formerly fishing families’ homestays to bird‑watching festivals among the reeds, Dongting’s governance logic is “soft coexistence.”

Yet they are also so similar: sharing similar pains from overexploitation that left them scarred; similar resolve to fight for “a river of clear water”; similar outcomes — when birds vote for the environment with their wings and people’s smiles bloom because of ecology, both great lakes complete a glorious transformation from “wounds” to a showcase of renewal.

Just this January, a notable small incident occurred at Dongting: a large mirrored art installation at Junshan Island Scenic Area was quickly removed after discussion raised concerns it might cause collision risks for migratory birds. The organizer responded: “We prioritize environmental protection and ecology.”

This small incident perhaps demonstrates that at Dongting today, “ecology first” has shifted from a slogan to an unquestioned guiding practice.

Source: anhuinews.com