Author Archives: GovWorldMag

Water diversion project benefits 40 mln people in E. China

Forty million residents in Dezhou City of Shandong Province are benefiting from the water diverted from the Yangtze River through the eastern route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project.

The Datun reservoir, located on the eastern route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, is the major water supply for Dezhou City in Shandong Province. [Photo by Cui Can/China.org.cn] 


The eastern route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project has channeled more than 2 billion cubic meters of water from China’s wetter south to the arid north since November 2013, benefiting 40 million people in Shandong Province, according to the officials from the Shandong South-to-North Water Diversion Construction Bureau.

One villager, Zhang Jinyun, said he feels water quality is better than before when using underground water as drinking and irrigation sources.

“We used to drink the water from underground, which is not good for our health,” he said. “Diseases such as goiters and osteoporosis are quite common among us. But thanks to the project, now we could have the water from the Yangtze River.”

Hu Zhouhan, deputy manager of the China Eastern Route Corporation of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, said the surface water has reached the Grade III water quality through water pollution prevention and eco-environment protection along the route.

“The initial phase of the eastern route has achieved progress in satisfying citizens and villagers’ daily water use, as well as the need for agriculture and industry, boosting the economic structural adjustment and upgrading,” Hu said.

The eastern route helps to solve water shortages in Shandong Province. The water diversion project will also supply water to the fertile farm lands in the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain, consequently supporting the economic development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

“Ensuring water quality and controlling pollution are crucial to the success of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project,” said Gao Degang, manager of the Shandong Eastern Route Corporation of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project. “Shandong has appointed river chiefs along the eastern route to oversee the rivers, lakes and reservoirs.”

Launched in 2002, the South-to-North Water Diversion Project is an important strategic measure in redistributing China’s water resources. The project has improved agricultural production as well as river and lake environments by supplying water for farmland irrigation and to drying rivers.

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East Asia

Green Party: Report “lays bare the cruelty of Universal Credit”

16 November 2017

The Green Party says a new report [1] by the Women’s Budget Group and the Runnymede Trust, which shows that women and ethnic minorities will lose out financially under Universal Credit, lays bare the cruelty of the system being imposed by the Government.

The Green Party believes that instead of Universal Credit the Government should be looking at creating a Universal Basic Income.

The analysis was published today and exposes the devastating impact of changes such as the cut to the work allowance and the two-child limit.

Women will face the worst of the cuts, with 2.2 million claimants in employment expected to lose an average of £1,400 a year and 3.6 million claimants not in employment set to lose an average £600 a year. Black employed women will lose the most, an average of £1500 a year.

Amelia Womack, Green Party deputy leader, said:

“Universal Credit is nothing more than an attack on Britain’s poorest and most vulnerable and this report lays bare the cruelty of the system. Women are being punished simply for being women, with BME women suffering the most. There is nothing either universal or credit-worthy about Universal Credit.

“The Green Party is calling for the Government to scrap Universal Credit and invest in a Universal Basic Income trial instead, which would make much more of a difference to families living in poverty.”

Notes:

  1.  https://wbg.org.uk/news/new-research-shows-universal-credit-failing-just-managing-women-bme-households-hardest-hit/

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Green Party •

11pm 29th March 2019

The date of our departure from the EU is determined by the EU Treaty. Under Article 50 we gave notice. We leave at any time when there is Agreement between the UK and the rest of the EU, or at the  two years point if there is no agreement.

It now looks clear that the EU has no wish to reach a mutually beneficial Agreement to get us out of the EU before March 2019. They are still refusing to discuss the future relationship and trade arrangements which the UK thinks it is in our mutual interest to discuss.

The question now comes up for debate in Parliament about when the UK needs to bring into full effect the EU Withdrawal Bill to ensure legal continuity and certainty following our departure. The government is therefore moving an amendment to make the time and date 11pm on 29th March 2019.

This should not be contentious. It is the date and time we will cease to be a member state under the Treaty and Article 50 procedure. The reason it also needs to be written into the Withdrawal Bill is that we need to bring in its provisions at the same time as we cease to belong to the EU in international law. Domestic law has to take over. It is also the likely earliest time when there could be an Agreement.

So why is it a matter of grave concern to some MPs that the government wishes to ensure this legal continuity? For the rest of the Bill they are desperate to ensure anything is debated in Bill Committee and does go through full legislative scrutiny, yet they don’t want to do the same for the important matter of when we leave.

The reason seems to be that they think we might get into the position where we are very close to an Agreement by 29 March 2019 but would somehow be thwarted in concluding shortly afterwards if we had in the meantime left the EU. It is difficult to see why this should occur. We have 16 months prior to departure to try to reach an Agreement. That Agreement could include an implementation period to follow exit if it required changes that are difficult to put in place quickly. The government has already said there will be additional legislation for any Agreement to be implemented in the UK.

I cannot see having a deadline 16 months ahead makes it more difficult to conclude an Agreement. If the EU does want a mutually beneficial Agreement there is plenty of time to get one. If the EU does not really want one or intends to try to squeeze more and more concessions out of the UK, an extension of a week or two after March 2019 is not going to suddenly provide a suitable Agreement after months of failure.

When Parliament legislated to send the Article 50 letter it legislated for us to leave in March 2019. The main reason we want that on the face of the Withdrawal Bill is to provide certainty and continuity of law given it now seems inevitable we will not be leaving by agreement any earlier.

On Tuesday the crucial Clause 1 which repeals the 1972 Act and therefore takes us out of the EU according to UK law passed by 318 to 68. The official Labour party abstained, as they realised voting against would be to vote against Brexit itself. The rest of the Bill is about creating legal certainty by carry over of EU laws.

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John Redwood MP •

30-vehicle pileup in Anhui kills 18

Eighteen people had died as of 6 pm on Wednesday after an expressway pileup of dozens of vehicles in Anhui province, local authorities said.

Rescuers work at the scene of a pile-up accident in east China’s Anhui Province on November 15, 2017. [Photo/CCTV]

The crash also injured 21 people, 11 of them seriously. All have been hospitalized, according to a statement posted by the Fuyang public security bureau. More than 30 vehicles, including trucks and buses, crashed around 7:45 am on Wednesday on the expressway section in Fuyang’s Yingshang county, it said. Some caught fire.

Local authorities, including police officers, firefighters, safety supervisors and medical personnel, quickly arrived at the scene, along with government officials of the city and county, the bureau said, adding that the fires had been extinguished by 10:38 am.

A preliminary investigation found the accident was likely caused by morning fog.

Images broadcast on CCTV on Wednesday afternoon showed goods that had been carried by the trucks scattered on the expressway, and some private cars that were smashed.

A netizen named Onlybelief on Sina Weibo, who claimed to be a witness, said heavy fog descended on the expressway suddenly before the accident – so thick that “it was hard to clearly see the road”.

 

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East Asia