End of 鈥榳hite pollution鈥 draws tourists
Print Edition
Worrying about the safety of their yaks is no longer a headache for herders in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Gannan as the plastic-scattered prairie has restored its original look.
鈥淚t was such a headache. Yaks and sheep would die after mistakenly eating plastic trash,鈥 said Ponge, 42.
Sitting on the border of Gansu, Qinghai and Sichuan provinces, Gannan serves as a major water conservation area for the Yellow River, China鈥檚 second-longest. Featuring various landscapes and diverse cultures, it is an acclaimed attraction for both domestic and international tourists.
Over the past few decades, low-cost plastic bags have been widely used in the region and a large quantity of them randomly discarded, polluting lakes, wetlands and other water resources. The 鈥渨hite pollution鈥 had been a nightmare until April 2013, when the local government banned the production, sale and use of plastic bags within its 45,000 square kilometers of land.
Ponge fully supported the ban. 鈥淧eople had been using plastic bags for decades, it was not easy for them to give up.鈥
More efforts were put in. Local authorities intensified inspection of supermarkets, malls and other retail locations, and took the initiative to distribute environment-friendly shopping bags to break the plastic bag addiction.
The face of the grassland finally began to change gradually. Grass and plants began to take root in the soil once covered by plastic trash. Better and richer food for animals made local herders realize that the prohibition of plastic bags was indeed for their own good.
Shopping with a cloth bag is now a fashion in the region.
But locals wanted more.
A prefecture-level cleaning campaign was inaugurated in 2015 to deal with littered garbage, livestock feces and sewage to make Gannan a 鈥済arbage-free prefecture.鈥
In addition, a total of 10 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) was earmarked to upgrade local infrastructure in 1,000 villages.
A beautified Gannan has lured more visitors. About 6.2 million came in the first half of 2019, bringing tourism revenue of 3 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 10.8 percent and 8.4 percent, respectively.
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