Chishui benefits from balanced approach

The campaign addressed the long-standing issue of the county's baijiu industry, where distilleries with inadequate competitiveness operated in a highly scattered and small-scale manner, according to the Renhuai government.

In another move to enhance the conservation of the Chishui, authorities in Guizhou have dismantled most small hydropower stations along the river's tributaries.

At a recent forum in the provincial capital Guiyang, Yi Yun, head of the province's water resources department, said that as of the end of last year, the department had demolished 195 small hydropower stations in the Chishui basin.

For the 29 stations left, measures have been taken to ensure the necessary flows needed by nearby ecosystems, he added.

In 2017, a 10-year fishing moratorium was imposed on the Chishui. As a result, the environmental and ecological conditions in the Chishui basin have significantly improved, and the local baijiu industry has further thrived.

As of the end of last year, all of the 39 tributaries of the Chishui in Maotai township, once heavily polluted partly because of the baijiu industry, had said farewell to water quality of below Grade V, the lowest in the country's five-tier quality system for surface water.

The efforts have resulted in a remarkable recovery of fish resources in the Chishui, according to the agriculture and rural affairs department of Zunyi, a prefecture-level area that oversees Renhuai.

Zhu Zhongsheng, an official with the department, said its monitoring found that there are now 98 species endemic to the Chishui in Zunyi, compared with 90 before 2016.

"The population structure of fish species has also been significantly optimized," he said, adding that the average weight of Onychostoma sima, or Sima shoveljaw carp, for instance, has increased 263 percent.

According to provincial authorities in Guizhou, as the general quality of water improved from Grade II to Grade I from 2013 to 2023, the total output value of the sauce-aroma baijiu industry on the banks of the Chishui jumped from 48 billion yuan to 150 billion yuan ($6.7 billion to $21 billion).

Last year, the Renhuai government reported that the output value and value added of the baijiu industry in the county increased by almost 10.7 percent and 8.1 percent year-on-year, respectively.