Villagers have fun in Xiaodi village, Hesha town in Handan, North China's Hebei province. [Photo/Xinhua]
ESTABLISHING A SOUND LONG-TERM MANAGEMENT AND PROTECTION MECHANISM
Constantly carry out village clean-up actions.
Implement the village clean-up actions focusing on "three clean-ups and one change" （i.e. clean-up of rural household waste, clean-up of village ponds and ditches, clean-up of agricultural production waste such as livestock and poultry manure, and change of bad habits affecting the rural living environment）。 Highlight the clean-up of blind spots, extend from "cleaning up the mess" to "controlling the chaos", expand from "cleaning up the general rural environment" to "cleaning up the household courtyard and surrounding areas of the village", and guide farmers to gradually develop hygienic health habits. Institutionalize, normalize, and long-term maintain the village clean-up actions.
Improve the long-term management and protection mechanism for the rural living environment.
Clarify the responsibilities of local governments, relative departments, and operation and management units, establish a long-term management and protection mechanism for the rural living environment with institution, criteria, groups, funding, and supervision. Make good use of public welfare service jobs and rationally set up management and protection groups for rural living environment renovation, give probity to hire the qualified people with low-income in rural areas. Clearly recognize the ownership of infrastructure of the rural living environment, establish sound criteria and regulations for the construction, management, and protection of infrastructure facilities, promote the integrated operation and management of rural toilets, domestic sewage and household waste treatment facilities, and village clean-up.
PLAYING THE MAIN ROLE OF FARMERS
Strengthen the function of primary-level organizations.
In the construction and renovation of the rural living environment, activities will be carried out to create a beautiful environment as well as a happy life for all the villagers; Villagers will be organized to consciously improve their living environment. Improve the villager's self-governance mechanism led by the Party, carry out the "four steps and transparency on two levels" system for democratic policy-making on major affairs at the village level, make full use of the "one discussion for one affair" and fund-raising system, invite the village collective economic organization, farmers' cooperatives, villagers, etc. to participate in the whole process related to the rural living environment in terms of planning, construction, operation, and governance. Implement a publicity system for rural living environment improvement and upgrading projects. Support the qualified farmers' cooperatives to be involved in the projects to improve the rural living environment. Guide farmers or farmers' cooperative organizations to establish various rural environmental protection organizations or enterprises in accordance with the law, and encourage farmers to undertake work such as the renovation and further protection of the local rural living environment. Attract individuals, enterprises, social organizations, etc. via nostalgia to support the improvement of the rural living environment through donations, paired assistance, etc.
Promote the concept of civilization and health.
Leverage people's strengths of the patriotic public health campaign to promote the importance of health and raise the public awareness of sanitation, health, and disease prevention and control, advocate a thrifty, healthy, green and low-carbon lifestyle to increase health knowledge among the farmers. Take the change of farmers' notions and the promotion of thrifty and healthy lifestyle as a vital part of the activities concerning cultural progress in rural areas, incorporate the use of hygienic toilets, garbage sorting, and healthy habits developing into the education in school, family, and society, and carry out various volunteer services. All levels' education and training for farmers should include the contents of rural living environment improvement.
Improve village regulations and villager rules.
Incorporate the requirements of village environmental sanitation into village regulations and villager rules, strengthen criticism, education, and restraint management for behaviors damaging the living environment, and encourage farmers to exercise their rights to manage their own affairs by serving the community, undertaking self-education, and exercising public scrutiny. Advocate the formulation of public civilization convention and community noise control regulations all across the country.
STRENGTHENING SUPPORT OF POLICIES
Strengthen the financial support.
Improve the financial support mechanism which is mainly invested by the local government and appropriately rewarded and subsidized by the central government, ongoing investments within the central budget, implement the financial reward policy to support the rural toilet revolution as planned in each village and ensure the financial investment input for rural environment improvement. Local government at all levels should guarantee funds for the rural living environment improvement and the construction and operation of infrastructure facilities, coordinate the land sale revenue for improving the rural living environment, and encourage local government to issue local bonds to support the qualified construction projects in the rural areas. The county can coordinate and integrate the funds and projects related to rural living environment improvement based on regulations, and build according to the concentrated layout village by village.
Innovate and improve relevant support policies.
Policies of the trial for the reform of rural residential land, the crackdown on illegal house construction on farmland, etc. will be aligned in a coordinated way, better implement the policies ensuring the use of land for the construction of rural living environment facilities, power and water, tax cuts, and so on. On the premise of applying red lines for farmland and ecological conservation, prioritize the barren land use for living environment projects in rural areas. Requirements for approval of village construction projects should be easily practiced. Village-level organizations and rural craftsmen are encouraged to undertake small-scale projects for the improvement of the rural living environment.
Establish a system of regulations and standards.
Encourage local government to enact regulations based on actual conditions, improve the systems of village cleaning, rural domestic sewage and garbage treatment, rural hygienic toilet management, etc. Speed up the establishment of standards for facilities construction, operation, monitoring, assessment, and services management in the fields of the rural living environment, and move quickly to revise relevant standards. Promote the relevant standards of rural living environment to enhance the public awareness of the standards, and strengthen the initiative of government departments, enterprises, and other related agencies to carry out work under the standards. Carry out product quality security supervision related to the improvement of the rural living environment, renovate the supervision mechanism, and institute random checks to respect the bottom line of quality security.
Strengthen technical and talent support.
Include technical research and innovation related to improving the rural living environment in the key missions of the national scientific and technological plan. Increase efforts in technical research and development, integration, demonstration, promotion, and application. Encourage and support research institutions and enterprises to develop new technologies and new products. With the focus on green and low-carbon development, promote research in conserving energy and water, recycling resource, and other technical products in rural areas. Develop a national rural living environment information management platform to monitor the environment and publish monitoring reports regularly.
STRENGTHENING ORGANIZATIONAL GUARANTEE
Strengthen organization and leadership.
Take improving the rural living environment as an important responsibility for the Party committees and governments at all levels, formulate a clear timetable and roadmap integrated with the overall work deployment of rural revitalization. Improve the work implementing mechanism which is coordinated by the central government, shouldered by provinces, and delivered by cities, counties and towns. The central leading group on rural work will integrate and improve the rural living environment to coordinate support policies of funds, resources, and talents, and supervise and promote the implementation of key missions. All relevant departments should work closely together, each carrying out its respective duties as a combination, and release supporting policies timely. The state-owned and township farms or forest farms should be included in the upgrading scope of the rural living environment for overall planning and coordination.
Strengthen classification guidance.
In line with the law of village development and evolution trend to optimize the layout of villages, highlight the planning guidance, reasonably classify the village type, scientifically delineate the area of improvement, consider the development of villages in leading industry, living environment, and ecological protection. Improve the infrastructure facilities in the concentrated and upgraded type of village, promote the rural living environment featuring benefits for all and sharing a win-win outcome, enhance the management to protect and conserve the scene of the countryside.
Improve the promotion mechanism.
Improve the work promotion mechanism led by quality, effectiveness, and farmers' satisfaction. Carry out the construction of beautiful villages and promotion of pleasant living environments within the county area, and those excellent example villages will drive other villages to follow. Insist on the rules of establishing mechanism first and constructing project later, encourage the qualified areas to implement systematic, professional, and socialized management and operation. Promote the integrated planning and unified management and operation of urban and rural infrastructure. Lead all relevant stakeholders to actively participate in the progress via providing rewards instead of subsidies, to prevent the government from doing everything for them. Carefully consider the financial affordability of the grass-root level, determine the major problems of improvement properly, and avoid increasing the village-level debt.
Strengthen evaluation and incentive.
Include the improvement of the rural living environment as a part of the relevant supervision and inspection plan and report the results to the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, inspect and incentive the rural areas where achieved significant improvement. Adopt the improvement result of the rural living environment as a key assessing part of the delivery of rural revitalization strategy in provinces （autonomous regions and municipalities）。 Highlight the issues in rural pollution treatments and conduct central environmental protection inspections. Strengthen the monitoring of vital issues in rural pollution control.
Create a positive atmosphere for development.
Summarize and promote experienced practices and typical examples of rural living environment improvement. The improvement of the rural living environment will be included in the scope of public welfare propaganda and insightfully reported via radio, television, newspapers, magazines, and new media platforms.
Source：
<http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/2021-12/05/content_5655984.htm>
<http://english.www.gov.cn/policies/latestreleases/202112/06/content_WS61ad43a9c6d0df57f98e6119.html>
Edited and translated by GUO Xinxin
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