Recently, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Water Resources jointly issued the Guideline on Strengthening the Management of the Comprehensive Utilization of Dredged Sand in the Mainstream of the Yangtze River (referred to as the Guideline) to promote the healthy and orderly development of the sand and gravel industry.
In recent years, with economic and social development, the demand for sand and gravel has been high, while the overall amount of sand output from rivers and lakes has continued to decrease. In such case, the contradiction between supply and demand has become increasingly prominent. The Guideline was issued to further standardize the comprehensive utilization and management of dredged sand in the mainstream of the Yangtze River.
The Guideline pointed out that it is necessary to fully implement the guiding thoughts from General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech on promoting the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, firmly establish the concept of prioritizing ecological conservation and boosting green development, adhere to the combination of guide and control and address both its symptoms and root causes, and carry out the comprehensive utilization of dredged sand in an orderly manner on the premise of ensuring the safety of the Yangtze River channels and waterways.
The Guideline emphasized that the comprehensive utilization of dredged sand must be efficient, safe, standardized and in strict order. It means that local government must be in the leading role to strengthen the coordination of all relevant departments. In the meantime, essential supply must be ensured and used under comprehensive control. What’s more, the utilization must be supervised in the entire process and carried out in standardized manner.
The Guideline required that it is necessary to standardize the implementation procedures for the comprehensive utilization of dredged sand and strengthen on-site supervision and management. In the mainstream of the Yangtze River, the construction and maintenance of wading projects such as navigation channels, involving the utilization of dredged sand, shall strictly follow the relevant procedures in accordance with the law and scientific methods. For the comprehensive utilization of sand and gravel in the Yangtze river project and waterway engineering projects, the relevant provincial water administrative department shall request the provincial government to formulate dredging sand disposal methods, the preparation methods, organization and implementation methods, supervision and management of comprehensive utilization implementation plans. Besides, the government must crack down on the ostensible dredging but sand mining without permission instead.