Chapter 1996 - 1996: 1996

In such weather, many places in the Great East Pot are as hot as a furnace.

Many places continuously break historical high-temperature records.

Places like Yunxi, a highland province, naturally become good places to escape the heat because it's cool!

In East Mountain Park in Dian City, by a bit past eight in the morning, it was already crowded with people coming from many places to escape the heat.

They were either taking cable cars up the mountain or hiking.

Of course, more people chose the cable car as it was more convenient, and they could also enjoy the view of the rippling Dian Lake.

The 800-li Dian Lake, the pearl of the highlands, boasts extraordinary scenery!

The climate here is good, spring-like throughout the year, and summers are not very hot.

Although Dian Lake is heavily polluted, overall it's still quite nice, at least the broad expanse of water is very pleasing to the eye, haha...

At this time, there weren't many people hiking up the mountain. The forest was dense, the air incredibly refreshing, truly a delight.

Liu Zhizhong and Zuo Xintong walked hand in hand, and as they walked, Zuo Xintong felt herself becoming moist. She even whispered a few words softly into Liu Zhizhong's ear.

Suddenly, Liu Zhizhong became very excited.

These emotionally driven events are indeed too impulsive.

So, Liu Zhizhong quickly pulled Zuo Xintong into the dense woods by the roadside.

In the forest, there were no signs of human presence.

Because of the refreshing climate and the mountain breeze, there weren't even mosquitoes in the forest.

The mountain birds chirped, lively, able to mask some sounds.

The two stood on the grassy ground in the forest, and there they took their stance, beginning their joy, ah...

The battle in the wild, the life movement between heaven and earth, really is immensely enjoyable, haha...

After more than twenty minutes, Zuo Xintong let out a low and winding moan amidst the birdsong, and then reached the peak of her life.

When the two came out, Zuo Xintong looked as radiant as a peach blossom, extremely charming.

This is her best beauty treatment, a rare indulgence.

As for Liu Zhizhong, he still had that cool, introverted charismatic look from before, holding Zuo Xintong as they once again embarked on their hiking journey, enjoying this cool summer and the rare reunion...

When the two arrived at the halfway point, resting at the observation deck, they could see the rippling Dian Lake.

At this time, there were many boats on the lake, cruising around.

There were also some fishery administration cleaning boats, deploying floating booms and nets to drag the algae on Dian Lake.

After all, it's summer now, and the polluted lake water breeds a lot of blue-green algae, of course, it needs to be cleaned up, or else fish and shrimp will die en masse, and the water will stink.

Liu Zhizhong looked at Dian Lake beneath their feet, still having some thoughts, and said: "Do you know, back then in order to control the pollution of Dian Lake, over 50 billion has been spent here!"

"Ah? So much money? But... why is Dian Lake's pollution still quite severe?"

Zuo Xintong was rather shocked and puzzled.

"Haha, you're not really knowledgeable then?"

"Indeed not, why don't you tell me?"

Liu Zhizhong nodded, "Mayor Zuo ordered it, so I naturally have to explain, haha... I must fulfill the old leader's request, just like earlier, haha..."

Zuo Xintong listened and laughed, her heart rippling as if she returned to the time when she was partnering in Huayang City.

At this moment, Liu Zhizhong really opened up, being quite professional.

"Dian Lake looks beautiful, but in reality, the pollution is significant. The difficulty in controlling its pollution is quite high, mainly due to several factors."

"First, it's restricted by natural factors. It's a semi-enclosed lake with little water exchange. It seems there is only a small river outlet, causing the water exchange cycle to be long. Several years ago, I read a report that its annual average lake outflow accounts for only 11% of the total storage capacity, which results in the easy deposition of pollutants, further polluting the water body."

"It's a shallow water lake, with an average depth of about 8 meters and the deepest places no more than twenty meters. This results in weak self-purification capacity, with low tolerance to pollution."

"Second, it's a historical issue. In the 1970s, to address food production and eating problems, there was a lake reclamation movement which reduced Dian Lake's water area by 20 square kilometers. In the 1980s, attempts were made to return land for lake restoration. Not much of the lake was restored, urbanization rapidly advanced, tall buildings densely packed, further destroying ecology, shrinking the lake surface, and increasing discharge pressure. All kinds of water used for daily life and production are discharged, who can withstand that?"

"Third, the sources of Dian Lake's pollution are complex. Early industrial wastewater and domestic sewage were discharged directly without treatment, with about two hundred million cubic meters discharged into the lake annually. Surrounding farmland fertilizers and pesticides entered through surface runoff, further increasing the risk of water eutrophication. Water hyacinths grow rampantly, blocking waterways, covering the lake surface, triggering large-scale blue-green algae blooms, further deteriorating water quality."

"Fourth, the difficulty and slow effectiveness of management. The investment is large but the effect is very slow. Over the years, more than 50 billion environmental management costs have been invested, due to long pollution accumulation time and long ecological restoration period, water quality improvement is not significant. The advancement of management measures is delayed, highland lake management projects exist with procrastination and incomplete issues, leading to ongoing pollution."

"Pollution control is something that requires long-term systemic investment globally. Balancing ecological restoration, source pollution control, and surrounding development can gradually improve water quality. This, in the current system, is really hard to do. This term's government doesn't stay long before the next replaces it, who wants to be a stepping stone for someone else's achievement? What they painstakingly develop, allowing others to pick the fruit, many officials don't want to do this."

Zuo Xintong nodded repeatedly, "Hmm, Zhizhong, you're very reasonable! According to what you said, should Dian Lake just be left to decay? There's no solution at all?"

Liu Zhizhong chuckled and shook his head, "It's not that there is no solution, it's that there is no leader capable of implementing management. If Tang Province is willing, I could lend him a hand, spend more money, at least a thousand billion, and see results within three years."

"Ah? Spend that much?" Zuo Xintong was stunned.

Liu Zhizhong nodded, "About that much! Tang Province should stay here for three years, then get promoted! Just right, managing Dian Lake is a monumental task for future generations!"

"But... how to do it?" Zuo Xintong's curiosity was really piqued.

Liu Zhizhong already had everything in his grasp, "Cooperate with the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the Wale Republic. We have deep environmental cooperation with Yirelie here. Yirelie people are very smart, they have many unimaginable agricultural technologies, and also environmental management technologies. With me as a bridge, if you connect with them and form a partnership, it won't have any issues."