This plan is formulated for the purposes of implementing the Outline of the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development, the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution, and the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for Ecological and Environmental Protection, ensuring the attainment of the objective to “conduct integrated environment management in additional 130,000 incorporated villages by 2020”, maintaining the long-term and stable operation of established facilities, and through pilot projects, mobilizing more incorporated villages to conduct integrated environment management.

Ⅰ. Environmental developments in the rural areas

(1) Work progress

The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) and Ministry of Finance (MOF) have for years seriously implemented the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on the environmental protection in the rural areas, constantly deepened the policy to offer financial rewards as incentives for controlling pollution, strengthened the organization and leadership, highlighted the guiding role of the programs and plans, made greater efforts in supervision and assessment, and guided and urged local areas to conduct integrated rural environment management. The local governments and relevant departments at all levels have established creative schemes and mechanisms, improved the policy measures, stressed the project progress and management, and achieved notable results in the integrated rural environment management, as shown below.

First, a great number of prominent environmental problems have been tackled in the countryside. By the end of 2015, the central government had allocated a total of 31.5 bn. yuan as rural environmental protection funds (rural energy conservation and pollution reduction funds) to finance the integrated rural environment management in 78,000 incorporated villages across the country, taking up 13 percent of the total incorporated villages. The protection signs mounted by local areas around drinking water sources had covered more than 3,800 km, and over 3,400 sewage outlets in the water sources had been removed. More than 4.5 mil. pieces/sets garbage collection, transportation, and treatment facilities, 248,000 sets sewage water treatment facilities, and 140,000 sets livestock and poultry breeding pollution control facilities had been established, as a result of which the annual treatment capacity of domestic garbage, sewage water, and livestock and poultry dung had reached 27.7 mil. t, 700 mil. t, and over 30.4 mil. t respectively, cutting the COD discharge by 950,000 t and ammonia nitrogen by 70,000 t each year. The dirty, disorderly, and poor environment of the villages had been treated and improved, and the villages had taken on a new look. Also, a policy has been introduced to offer financial rewards as incentives to control pollution (the “reward for pollution control” policy), which has stimulated the enthusiasm of relevant State departments and local areas to strengthen rural environmental improvement. So far, the domestic garbage in 60 percent of the incorporated villages and the sewage water in 22 percent of the incorporated villages have been treated, and almost 60 percent of the wastes from livestock and poultry breeding farms have been comprehensively utilized.

Second, the environmental schemes and mechanisms have been gradually established in the rural areas. A raft of environmental policies and technical papers targeting the rural areas has been introduced. For example, the State Council General Office printed and distributed the Guiding Opinions on Improving the Living Environment of the Rural Areas, and MEP, MOF, and other State departments formulated and implemented the 12th Five-Year Plan for the Integrated Rural Environment Management, the Opinions on Strengthening the Operation and Management of Rural Environmental Infrastructure under the “Reward for Pollution Control” Initiative, the Administrative Measures on the Use of the Central Government Funds for Energy Conservation and Emissions Reduction in Rural Areas, and the Plan for Fostering the Market Players for Agricultural Non-point Pollution Control and Rural Sewage Water and Garbage Treatment. Moreover, MEP has issued technical guidelines and specifications for the control of domestic pollution and the protection of drinking water sources in the countryside. More than two thirds of the provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities across China have put in place mechanisms and formed a leading group to promote the environmental protection in the countryside, rolled out opinions on strengthening the rural environmental protection, and made programs or implementation plans to specify the objectives, tasks, and measures for protecting the rural environment. Directed by the central government funds, local areas concerned have integrated the agriculture, rural area, and rural resident related funds and spend them in integrated environment management areas, and raised the efficacy of village environment improvement, by following the principle of “keeping the financing channels in order, not abusing the funds, taking all factors into consideration, and establishing collaboration”.

Third, the environmental regulatory capacity of the rural areas has been enhanced. The community-level environmental protection departments and workforce have been expanded. In 2014, 2,968 townships/towns in China had an environmental protection department, accounting for 10 percent of the total, and up 60 percent from 2010 (1,892 ones). More than 11,900 people worked in those departments, up 68 percent from 2010 (over 7,100). The environmental monitoring, enforcement, and publicity has been carried out in the countryside. MEP introduced the Guiding Opinions on Strengthening Environmental Monitoring in the Rural Areas, and launched pilot projects on monitoring the environmental quality by around 5,200 village·times in the countryside. Also, thematic inspection initiatives have been conducted in the rural areas to check how well the centralized drinking water sources were being protected, the domestic garbage and sewage water was being treated, and the pollution from stalk burning and livestock and poultry breeding was being controlled. The policies, work progress, and typical experience in rural environmental protection have been widespread and the knowledge about them has been popularized in a myriad of forms. As a result, the rural residents have become more aware of environmental protection. A total of 14 training seminars have been provided to more than 1,400 township/town-level leading officials and local environmental management staff, which has enhanced the environmental management capacity and raised the project implementation level in the countryside.

Fourth, notable progress has been made in bringing benefits to the rural residents by protecting the environment. The local areas have taken the opportunity of the integrated rural environment management to vigorously spread the technologies for reducing the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, controlling their hazards, and improving their efficacy; to develop clean, circular, and eco-friendly plantation and breeding models; to promote the comprehensive utilization of such countryside organic wastes as crop stalks, and animal and poultry dung; and to develop agritainment and rural tourism. All those efforts have helped protect the rural environment, push up the farm yields, and increase the incomes of the rural residents. Furthermore, practical techniques have been selected and spread to protect the environment in the countryside. The higher educational institutions, scientific research institutes, and the industry have been part of the engineering design, proposal, operation, and maintenance process of the environmental treatment projects, which has boosted the development of the environmental protection industry. The integrated rural environment management has significantly advanced the development of eco-towns, eco-townships and eco-villages, and enabled the pilot areas to enjoy ever-improving environment, higher growth rate of rural economy, and more harmonious communications between the Party members and the people, and the cadres and the people. So far, there are more than 4,590 national-level eco-towns and eco-townships in China which set an exemplary role in balancing the local economic, social, and environmental development and lay a solid foundation for building ecological civilization in the countryside.

(2) Main problems

The environment in the rural areas still faces daunting challenges and prominent problems, along with the accelerated pace of industrialization, urbanization, and agricultural modernization as well as growing populations. The main problems are listed as below.

First, the environmental infrastructure is still in great shortage in the rural areas. So far, garbage collection and disposal facilities are still unavailable in as much as 40 percent of the incorporated villages, so are sewage water treatment facilities in 78 percent of those villages. Forty percent of the wastes from livestock and poultry breeding are neither utilized as resources nor decontaminated. The countryside still suffers from a dirty, disorderly and poor environment. Thirty-eight percent of the drinking water sources in the countryside are not protected by protected areas that are clearly delineated. Forty-nine percent of them do not have warning signs. Also, there are hazards that pose a threat to the drinking water sources in some of the rural areas.

Second, the rural areas need better environmental protection schemes and mechanisms. In some areas the local governments have not established any efficient mechanism to promote the integrated rural environment management. The responsibilities for such management are not clearly defined, the control measures are too generic, the financial inputs are not fully available, and the work plans are not well implemented. The local authorities instead of the rural residents have played a major part in moving forward with the environmental management. A market-based mechanism needs to be put in place immediately for the environmental governance in the countryside, since the nongovernment sectors contributed little funding to such governance. In some of the local areas, the environmental infrastructures have not been able to operate normally after they are established, which undermines the rural environmental improvements, due to certain problems. For example, the management body of the infrastructure is not clearly designated, the operation and maintenance funds are unavailable, the management team is understaffed, and the rules and institutions are incomplete.

Third, the environmental regulatory capacity is still poor in the countryside. The local environmental protection departments at all levels have few resources devoted to protecting the rural environment. There are neither specific departments and staff nor necessary equipment and capacity dedicated to such protection in almost 90 percent of the towns and townships across China, which makes it impossible to effectively protect the environment in the countryside. The rural environmental protection standards are incomplete, and there is a dire need to formulate discharge standards for domestic sewage water and technical specifications for the treatment and disposal of domestic garbage. The rural environment is not being monitored on a national scale, which makes it impossible to keep updates on the quality of the rural environment and its changes.

Ⅱ. Guiding thoughts, cardinal principles and objectives

(1) Guiding thoughts

Fully implement the guiding principles of the 18th National Congress of the CPC, and the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth plenary sessions of the 18th CPC Central Committee, firmly foster and act upon the innovation, coordination, green, open, and sharing based development concepts, and in accordance with the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on the rural environmental protection, and taking the opportunity of promoting the supply side structural reform in the agricultural sector, thoroughly implement the “reward for pollution control” policy, improve the rural environmental protection mechanism, work strenuously to solve the prominent environmental problems that are strongly complained by the general public in the countryside, improve the living environment of the rural areas, and uplift the ecological civilization development level there.

(2) Cardinal principles

—Highlight the priorities and take all factors into consideration. Give priority to addressing the most practical and prominent environmental problems that are of immediate interests to the people, especially in the villages in the vicinity of waters with either “good” or “poor” water quality, with the main tasks to protect the drinking water sources in the countryside, treat the domestic garbage and sewage water, and prevent and control the pollution by livestock and poultry breeding. Take into consideration the protection of the work and living environment, the urban and rural environment, and the environment in the plantation and breeding sectors. Enable such protection to be complementary with the comprehensive utilization of the stalk, and the safe drinking water, watercourse dredging, and village greenery projects in the countryside, integrate the funding channels and improve the comprehensive treatment effects. Offer greater supports to the old revolutionary bases, the ethnic minority areas, the remote areas, and 14 contiguous poor areas with special difficulties.

—Adjust measures to local conditions and offer category-specific guidance. Based on the actual circumstances, take into consideration such factors as the layout of the villages, the population size, the environmental situations, the natural conditions, and the economic level, and adopt a science-based approach to select the appropriate treatment technologies and models. Put "utilization" at the core of the work, take comprehensive utilization as a fundamental solution to rural environmental problems, and enable the rural residents to benefit from the "utilization" and shoulder due environmental responsibilities in the process.

—Develop creative mechanisms and operate them under market rules. In light of the overarching requirements of the national institutional reforms on ecological civilization, constantly improve the schemes and mechanisms for rural environmental protection, develop creative policy measures, and abstain from simply copying the practices in the control of urban and industrial pollution. Vigorously foster market players for the control of non-point pollution in the agricultural sector and the treatment of rural domestic sewage water, explore a mechanism for the scaled and specialized operation of the rural environmental protection infrastructures by social entities, and make sure each and every infrastructure is efficiently operated once built up.

—Be guided by the government with the rural residents playing the major part. The local governments at all levels especially the county governments are primarily responsible for improving the rural environmental quality within their respective administrative jurisdictions. They are responsible for the programming and planning, securing funds, and the construction, operation, management, supervision, and assessment of the infrastructures. Efforts will be made to enable the rural residents to play a major part in environmental improvement, encourage and guide them to vigorously engage in the integrated rural environment management, and continuously improve the rural environmental quality.

(3) Objectives

By 2020, additional 130,000 incorporated villages will have completed the integrated environment management, adding the number of such villages up to over one third of the total incorporated villages across the country. A long-term mechanism will have been put in place for protecting the rural environment. The 78,000 incorporated villages where the integrated environment management has been covered will have seen constantly improved environment, and the established environmental infrastructures in the countryside will have been operated stably in a long term. More of the incorporated villages will have been guided, piloted, and mobilized to carry out the integrated environment management. The drinking water source areas will have been better protected in the countryside, and the abilities to treat rural domestic sewage water and garbage and control the pollution from livestock and poultry breeding will have been notably improved. The living environment will have been remarkably improved in the rural areas, and the rural environment regulatory capacity and the environmental awareness of the rural residents will have been remarkably enhanced.

Ш. Key management areas

(1) Overall plan

According to the requirements for improving the water quality and the national major strategies and arrangements, the integrated rural environment management will be launched in 140,000 incorporated villages in all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, during the 13th Five-Year Plan period from 2016 to 2020 (see table 1). The key areas are the incorporated villages in the vicinity of waters with "good" and "poor" water quality, which amounted to 128,200 ones in 1,805 counties (cities, and districts), taking up about 92 percent of the national management target. Specifically, there are 24,600 incorporated villages in 284 major counties for poverty-alleviation development projects, accounting for 18 percent of the national management target.

Table 1 Province-specific targets for integrated rural environment management  

See the annex for the list of key management areas in all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities as well as the number of their villages. The list of the towns and townships and the number of the incorporated villages are referential. The provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities may adjust the list and number for each county (city, district) as appropriate based on actual circumstances, provided that the total number of the managed villages remain unchanged.

(2) Key management areas

a. Villages in the vicinity of "good" waters

They include 81,500 (see table 2) incorporated villages in 1,132 counties (cities, districts) in the headwaters and along the eastern and central transfer routes of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, as well as those in the vicinity of other major drinking water source areas, accounting for about 58 percent of the national management target.

Table 2 The number of the incorporated villages in the vicinity of "good" waters

b. Villages in the vicinity of "poor" waters

They include the villages seated in 343 control units where the water quality needs to be improved, i.e., 46,700 incorporated villages (see table 3) in 673 counties (cities, districts), which took up 34 percent of the national management target.

Table 3 The number of the incorporated villages in the vicinity of "poor" waters

 (3) Priority management areas

The priority management areas are the three major areas including the headwaters and eastern and central transfer routes of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and Yangtze economic belt, including 81,400 incorporated villages in 880 counties (cities, districts), which is about 58 percent of the national management target.

a. The headwaters and the eastern and central transfer routes of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project

Covering 22,800 incorporated villages (see table 2) in 211 counties (cities, districts) in the headwaters and the eastern and central transfer routes of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, taking up about 16 percent of the national management target.

b. Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region

Covering 8,131 incorporated villages (see table 4) in 89 counties (cities, districts) in Miyun Reservoir, Guanting Reservoir, Yuqiao Reservoir and other major drinking water source areas, as well as 63 control units where the water quality needs to be improved, taking up around 6 percent of the national management target.

Table 4 The number of the incorporated villages in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region

c. Yangtze Economic Belt

Covering 50,500 incorporated villages (see table 5) in 580 counties (cities, districts) in the Three Gorges Reservoir area and its upstream, Poyang Lake, Dongting Lake, Fuxian Lake, Erhai Lake and other major drinking water source areas, as well as 145 control units where the water quality needs to be improved, taking up about 36 percent of the national management target.

Table 5 The number of the incorporated villages in Yangtze economic belt  

Ⅳ. Major tasks

The major tasks for the integrated rural environment management during the 13th Five-Year Plan period are the protection of the drinking water sources in the rural areas, the treatment of rural domestic garbage and sewage water, the use of the wastes from the livestock and poultry breeding as resources and the control of their pollution.

 (1) The protection of the drinking water sources in the rural areas

a. Description

We will mount warning signs in the vicinity of the drinking water sources, build shelter belts and sewage blocking facilities, remove sewage outlets in accordance with law, and conduct ecological restoration of the water sources.

b. Key measures

Quicken the pace to delineate the boundaries of drinking water source protected area or scope in the rural areas. We will survey and evaluate the environmental conditions of drinking water sources in the countryside, and quicken the pace to delineate the boundaries of drinking water source protected area or scope, especially in the environmentally sensitive rural areas with a large population to support; code and delineate in a scientific approach the boundaries of centralized drinking water source protected areas that supply water for a population of over 1,000 people, and delineate the protection scope of drinking water sources that support less than 1,000 persons, in accordance with the national technical regulations.

Tighten the environmental regulation of drinking water sources in the rural areas. The local environmental protection departments at all levels should launch thematic enforcement and ban sewage outlets inside the centralized drinking water source protected areas in the countryside, in accordance with law. They will monitor the water quality of the drinking water sources in the rural areas, in accordance with the National Work Programme for Pilot Monitoring of the Environmental Quality in the Rural Areas; develop environmental emergency preparedness plan in the drinking water source protected areas in the countryside, and step up the prevention, early warning, and emergency response to pollution accidents; make plans for integrating the water supply in the urban and rural areas, build a batch of high-quality drinking water sources, and ban a batch of inferior drinking water sources.

Conduct the environmental management of water sources. The local environmental protection departments at all levels should tighten the environmental enforcement and risk control in the chemical, paper making, smelting, pharmaceutical, and other key sectors and the pollution sources that may pose a threat to the environmental safety of drinking water sources in the rural areas. The priority is to treat the domestic sewage and garbage and the pollution from the livestock and poultry breeding farms and agricultural non-point sources near the source water, and eliminate the pollution hazards that pose a threat to the drinking water quality.

(2) The treatment of the rural domestic garbage and sewage water

a. Description

We will carry out the treatment of domestic garbage and sewage in the rural areas especially where the villages cluster and the populations are dense. To be specific, (1) we will build domestic garbage sorting, collection, transport, and disposal facilities, including trash cans, dust holes, and other collection facilities, garbage transfer centers, transportation vans, and other transportation facilities, as well as environmentally sound garbage treatment facilities; (2) we will build domestic sewage treatment facilities, including sewage pipelines, centralized sewage treatment facilities, or constructed wetlands, oxidation ponds, and other distributed treatment facilities. After such treatment, all of the domestic garbage in the villages will be stored in designated sites and transported away, at least 70 percent of the garbage will be treated in environmentally sound ways, and at least 60 percent of the sewage water will be treated.

b. Key measures

Promote unitary planning, development, and management of county-wide rural environmental infrastructures. In every county-level administrative jurisdiction, we will conduct unitary planning, development, and management of rural domestic garbage and sewage water treatment facilities, and extend municipal solid waste and wastewater treatment facilities and services to rural areas in the regions with conditions. We will give incentives to choosing project designer, contractor, and supervisor through unitary tendering and bidding at the county level, attract credible, competitive, and larger-scale environmental companies to take part in the construction, operation, and management of the facilities, and improve the garbage and sewage treatment level.

Adopt domestic garbage and sewage treatment technologies and models in accordance with local conditions. The local areas, while adopting practical technologies for the environmental protection in the countryside, should decide the technologies and models by taking into consideration such factors as the population density, topographic features, climate, and economic conditions of a village. In the meantime, they should consider both construction cost and operation and maintenance cost, properly handle the relation between the practicability and unitarity of the technology, and prevent the technologies from being “a messy and fragmented diversity”. They will establish a village sanitation system, introduce the in-situ garbage sorting, reduction, recovery and recycling system, and facilitate the reduction, resource use, and environmentally sound treatment of rural domestic garbage. They will quicken the pace to establish sorted garbage dumping, collection, transportation, and treatment system, set up a law-based garbage sorting system that is advocated by the government, participated by the whole nation, integrates the urban and rural areas, and considers local conditions, and spread the garbage sorting system. For villages with access to convenient traffic and a short transportation distance, the garbage may be sorted by individual household, collected by the village, transported by the town, and treated by the county. For other villages, the garbage may be disposed of near the village by an appropriate approach. For villages seated close to cities and towns, the sewage may be collected by the pipelines and treated in sewage water treatment facilities. For populous villages far away from cities and towns, centralized wastewater treatment facilities may be established. For less populous villages, constructed wetlands, oxidation ponds, and other distributed wastewater treatment facilities may come useful.

Maintain the long-term operation of pollution control facilities. The local areas should earnestly implement the Opinions on Strengthening the Operation and Management of the Rural Environmental Infrastructures Funded by the Rewards for Pollution Control, which was issued by MEP and MOF. They should, based on local conditions, specify the infrastructure management main body, establish the funding mechanism, strengthen the operation workforce, and introduce a supervision and management mechanism, in order to make sure each infrastructure that has been established operate with high efficiency. The provincial environmental protection departments should collaborate with the financial departments to complete canvassing all established facilities by the end of 2017, and require the facilities unable to operate normally to be rectified within a prescribed period of time. The facilities that fail the rectifications should be criticized or the facility management bodies should have admonitory talks in order to make sure the pollution control facilities are useful. For the new facilities, the provincial environmental protection departments should collaborate with the financial departments and request the county governments to present a letter of commitment to securing the environmental facility operation and maintenance funds, and regard the letter as a precondition for allocating funds for rural energy conservation and emission reduction. Neither funds nor projects will be approved without securing a funding source for the environmental facility operation and maintenance.

 (3) Use of the wastes from livestock and poultry breeding farms as resources and control of their pollution

a. Description

We will conduct region-wide or county-wide use of wastes from livestock and poultry breeding farms as resources and control the pollution from them in regions with a great amount of livestock and poultry breeding farms that cause prominent environmental problems. To do this, we will introduce a government-sponsored, industry-dominated, and commercially operated system, with the biogas and bio-natural gas as the main treatment targets and the in-situ and proximate use of the wastes as rural energy and agricultural organic fertilizers as the main uses. We will build facilities for the use of the wastes as composts, biogas, bio-natural gas, organic fertilizers, and other resources. After treatment, the wastes from the livestock and poultry breeding farms in the village will be treated with high efficiency, specifically, the comprehensive utilization rate of the dung will be no less than 70 percent.

b. Key measures

Complete the delineation and treatment of the areas prohibited from building livestock and poultry breeding farms. The local areas should delineate the areas that are prohibited from building livestock and poultry breeding farms on time and in accordance with the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution and the Technical Guidance for Delineating the Areas Prohibited from Building Livestock and Poultry Breeding Farms. The local environmental protection departments should collaborate with relevant departments to push for the local governments to shut down and relocate the breeding farms (plots) that are seated in the areas prohibited from building those farms and need to be either shut down or relocated.

Adopt resource use technologies and models in a scientific approach. For scaled livestock and poultry breeding farms (plots), if surrounded by enough farmlands to consume the wastes, we will introduce a model that integrates the agriculture and husbandry sectors and balances the plantation with livestock and poultry breeding, through biogas fermentation, return of biogas slurry and digestate to farmlands, composting, and production of organic fertilizers; without enough farmlands to consume the wastes, we will strengthen the engineering treatment measures and separate the dung from sewage, produce organic fertilizers from the solids, and comprehensively utilize the liquids or have them treated and meet discharge standards. We will give incentives to scaled livestock and poultry breeding farms for them to collect and take environmentally sound technologies to dispose of the wastes from a cluster of breeding farms and individual breeding households in the neighborhood. For areas with lots of breeding farms, the county environmental protection departments should collaborate with relevant departments to push for the county governments to adopt a government-organized, industry-led, and farmer-participated model, by taking into consideration human feces and animal dung, domestic wastewater and garbage, stalk, and other wastes, to establish a three-tiered network for the collection-conversion-utilization of the organic wastes in the countryside. We will guide the rural residents to increase the use of organic fertilizers, through such initiatives and policies as eco-agriculture initiative, zero growth in the uses of fertilizers and pesticides, the farmland protection and improvement initiative, and the policy for rewards to improvements in organic matters of soils.

Strengthen the environmental regulation of livestock and poultry breeding farms. We will strengthen the control of pollution at the source, and be strict in the environmental review of the proposed breeding farms projects. We will implement the environmental impact assessment system to the letter on new, rebuilt, and expanded projects on scaled breeding farms (plots). We will put forward requirements for the siting of the breeding farms (plots) and the environmental measures to be taken, considering the environmental sensitive sites in an administrative region and its requirements for environmental improvement. We will, step by step, require the scaled breeding farms (plots) with sewage outlets to acquire pollution permits. We will strengthen the reduction of the pollutants from livestock and poultry breeding industry, and consider the wastes that are used as resources as part of the reduced amount of pollutants during total pollutant control. We will take the improvements in the concentrations of the water quality indicators including COD, ammonia nitrogen, TP, and TN of a region as major measurements to assess the pollution control effects of the livestock and poultry breeding farms. We will strengthen the control and supervision of pollution from the livestock and poultry breeding industry and investigate the incompliance in accordance with law.

V. Support measures

(1) Strengthen organization and leadership

Strengthen coordination and collaboration. We will establish a sound mechanism for the collaboration between the central and local governments, get and communicate on the information on the integrated rural environment management of local areas on a timely basis, and ensure the timely identification and settlement of prominent environmental problems in the rural areas. The local areas should put in place an inter-departmental cooperation mechanism, strengthen coordination and collaboration among departments, integrate the resources, share the information, and establish partnership.

Each performs his own responsibility. The MOF and MEP will decide the list of major provinces to receive supports in the integrated rural environment management, tighten the supervision on the use of funds and the implementation of the project concerned, and introduce assessment, reward and punitive mechanisms. The provincial environmental protection department will work with relevant departments to formulate a plan or program for the integrated rural environment management within its administrative jurisdiction; establish and improve the project library and technical support teams, enhance the project implementation and performance assessment, increase the financial inputs, strengthen the integration of the agriculture, rural area, and rural resident related funds, and introduce a sound mechanism for the operation and maintenance of the rural environmental facilities. The municipal people’s government will strengthen the guidance and supervision over the integrated rural environment management within its administrative jurisdiction, and urge the county and township governments of the project to make commitment to keeping the long-term operation of the pollution control facilities. The county government is responsible for the proposal, organization, and implementation of new project, as well as the operation and maintenance of established projects; it will integrate the agriculture, rural area, and rural resident related funds, and give incentives to advancing progresses made on a township or county scale. The township government will ensure the construction quality and progress of the projects in its administrative jurisdiction. The village and the town that has secured funds should make public the allocation and use of the funds and the project implementation progress, as part of its government affair sharing efforts. The village where the project is seated should guide and organize the villagers to do volunteer work for the project construction and facility operation and management, in accordance with the village rules.

(2) Increase financial inputs

Increase the financial inputs. We will make full use of the funds from central government for the energy conservation and pollution reduction in the countryside as the seed fund to channel more financial inputs from local governments at all levels. We will support relevant counties, cities, and districts to further integrate the agriculture, rural area, and rural resident related funds and invest them in the integrated rural environment management. We will leverage the policy-oriented financial institutions to secure more credit loans and expand the environmental protection funds in the rural areas.

Encourage inputs from nongovernment sectors. We will, through the government purchase of public service (GPPS) and public-private partnership (PPP), encourage the market players to give more inputs into the construction, operation, and maintenance of rural garbage and sewage collection and treatment facilities. We will introduce competition mechanism and pay-for-performance system, and set a reasonable cost for construction and a reasonable fee for operation and maintenance. We will give incentives to integrating the plantation with animal husbandry and support the production of organic fertilizers and edible fungi from animal wastes. We will mobilize the scaled livestock and poultry breeding farms to contract third parties to control pollution. We will work to formulate preferential policies on taxation, land use, and electricity price. We will select certain counties, cities, and districts to explore a mechanism for the scaled, professional, and social operation of rural environmental facilities.

Guide the rural residents to participate. We will improve the “case by case” reward and subsidy mechanism for the public benefit utility development in villages, and give incentives to the rural residents to be part of the integrated rural environment management initiative. We will establish a bottom-up democratic decision-making mechanism for the integrated rural environment management, and introduce a mechanism for the villagers to make decisions on the design, construction and management of the projects, and construct and manage them. We will improve the village affair publicity system and make public the projects, contracts, and amount of investments.

Standard management of the funds. The MOF and MEP will strengthen the supervision over the use of the funds. The local financial and environmental protection departments at all levels should earnestly strengthen the regulation over funds and continue to implement the public announcement, record-filing, and other systems proven effective. The local environmental protection departments should work with relevant departments to establish an information management system for the projects funded by the rewards for pollution control in the countryside, and exercise dynamic management over the project funds. All of the rural environmental facilities financed by the fiscal funds will be accounted for and their operation and management will be recorded.

(3) Improve schemes and mechanisms

Establish target responsibility system. The provincial environmental protection departments should push for the provincial governments to break down the targets set out by the central government and allocate them down the administrative hierarchy to county governments. The local governments should identify the main responsible persons, carry out their responsibilities, and establish an assessment system in which the upper level government assesses the performances of its lower level government, so that the local governments’ responsibilities for protecting the environment are carried out.

Improve the rural environmental regulation system. We will, while conducting the reform for establishing a vertical management framework for the monitoring, supervision, and enforcement branches in the environmental protection departments below provincial level, further consolidate the community-level environmental regulation and enforcement forces, and in the towns, townships and industrial clusters with conditions, strengthen the community-level environmental enforcement system, foster a stronger workforce, and secure the funds. We will establish a better working mechanism for environmental enforcement, a mechanism in which the work priorities, the resources, and support measures are more oriented to the lower level enforcement forces. We will further coordinate the environmental enforcement in the urban and rural areas.

Strengthen rural environmental monitoring. We will advance the pilot monitoring of the rural environmental quality across the country, put forward technical routes and formulate technical specifications for environmental monitoring in the rural areas, establish a monitoring network faster, and set up an information publicity system. The counties, cities, and districts which carry out the integrated rural environment management should, for supervision purposes, monitor the operation of the facilities that process the sewage from the households and scaled livestock and poultry breeding farms (plots) in the rural areas.

 (4) Strengthen science and technology support

Strengthen scientific research and technical guidance. We will organize the higher educational institutions, research institutes, industries and industrial associations to work out key technologies for the integrated rural environment management, with an aim to improve the resource use rate of wastes from the rural areas and the agricultural sector. We will give incentives to the research and development of the technologies for the treatment of domestic sewage and garbage in the countryside, and in areas unsuitable for establishing centralized pollution control facilities, research and develop environment-friendly, economic, and practical small-scale or household pollution control technologies and equipment. We will formulate and amend discharge standards for rural domestic sewage, and technical policies for the control of pollution by domestic sewage and by livestock and poultry breeding farms. The local areas should, based on local conditions, formulate local standards and technical specifications for the discharge of pollutants from rural sewage treatment facilities, for the treatment and resource use of domestic garbage, and for the resource use of wastes from livestock and poultry breeding farms.

Further spread practical technologies. We will quicken the pace to translate research findings on rural environmental protection into practical uses, and integrate and screen out some practical technologies for the treatment of domestic sewage and garbage. We will, through pilot projects, spread the use of practical technologies and equipment for rural environmental protection, and explore creative models suitable for the treatment and disposal of domestic sewage and garbage. Also, we will disseminate those practical technologies and equipment through on-site observations, training programs, and video clips.

 (5) Tighten supervision and assessment

Conduct supervision and inspection. The provincial and municipal environmental protection departments should work with the financial departments to conduct assessment and acceptance check of established facilities, propose rectification requirements for the facilities that fail such assessment or check, and for those which pass it, carry out random check at least once a year on their operation; they will request the county government concerned to make rectifications within a prescribed period regarding the problems found in the random check, and circulate a criticism or have admonitory talks with those that fail such rectifications. The county environmental protection departments (regional offices of municipal environmental protection departments) should supervise the management of facility operation as part of their daily work, and integrate the departments and workforce available, to make sure the facilities are operated under supervision, monitoring, and with instructions. Also, they should collaborate with the financial departments to conduct annual check on all of the established facilities within their administrative jurisdictions to see how those facilities have been operated and maintained, deliver a report to the county government, and urge the facility management body to make rectifications on the problems found in the check.

Improve reward and punitive mechanisms. The MEP will, together with the MOF, assess the performances of the provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities in the attainment of targets and tasks, and take the assessment results as a major consideration in the allocation of the central government funds for energy conservation and emissions reduction in the rural areas. More funds will be allocated to the areas that are assessed with good performances in target attainment. For the areas that fail to achieve the targets or achieve them with bad performances, we will, as appropriate, circulate a criticism, reduce the amount of the funds, or retrieve the funds already allocated.