In 2021, Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province, initiated a citywide biodiversity survey. After the three-year survey, some fish species that require extremely high water quality and had long disappeared from Guiyang have now reappeared in the city's Nanming River.

This demonstrates the effectiveness of Guiyang's strong efforts to preserve its environment and biodiversity.

The Nanming River, an important tributary of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, once suffered a complete collapse of its aquatic ecosystem due to industrial production and urban expansion. Guiyang has been working to restore the river since 2012.

The Nanming River today. [Photo/Guiyang news network] 

Thousands of households living along the riverbank and over 200 companies were relocated. With an investment of 7.59 billion yuan ($1.05 million), 20 new recycled-water plants were built to increase sewage treatment capacity from 990,000 metric tons per day to 1,835,000 tons per day. 

Additionally, 40 drainage ditches spanning 97.06 kilometers were improved and 14 water-quality monitoring stations were set up. Moreover, the city has been planting trees, addressing 80 square kilometers of soil erosion in the river basin. 

By 2022, the number of fish species in the Nanming River had increased to 22, and a total of 49 species of benthic animals, 140 species of wetland plants, and 163 species of algae had been found.