Shenzhen Pioneers a New Path in Water Management, Integrating Pro-Water Values into Daily Life

In recent years, Shenzhen has made significant strides in the battle against water pollution, achieving a 100% excellence rate in water quality at national and provincial monitoring points and a 73.9% excellent river length ratio among the city's 310 rivers. This historic improvement has earned Shenzhen recognition from the State Council as one of the top five cities with notable improvements in key watershed water quality and as a national demonstration city for the management of black and odorous water bodies.

Since 2019, the Shenzhen Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau has partnered with Vanke Service to innovatively implement the“Shenzhen River and Lake Water Ecological Technology Control” model. This collaboration fosters a government-led, enterprise-driven, and socially and publicly participatory environmental governance system. It serves the water management efforts by forming a technological, refined, and systematic approach to water environment control. On the other hand, it actively carries out a series of thematic publicity activities centered around "全民参与、共管共享，共护美丽河湖" (All Citizens Participate, Co-manage and Share, Jointly Protect Beautiful Rivers and Lakes), continuously enhancing public environmental awareness and garnering more support for water environmental protection. In 2024, the project was selected as an excellent public relations case in environmental protection by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

Government and Enterprise Join Hands to Expand the "Circle of Friends" for Water Protection

Ecological environment education and publicity is a massive project aimed at the general public. Shenzhen Vanke Service has leveraged its extensive urban coverage and strong community ties to launch a series of environmental protection public welfare propaganda activities themed "All Citizens Participate, Co-manage and Share, Jointly Protect Beautiful Rivers and Lakes." This campaign has penetrated community notice boards, elevators, property apps, etc., with environmental knowledge popularized through public accounts, and promoted through community posters and media news. At the same time, Vanke Service has utilized its community and project resources to carry out a series of environmental protection activities in communities, rivers, parks, and schools, involving more than 150 property communities, and more than 10 parks, rivers, and schools, affecting nearly 400,000 community residents, and building a bridge for co-management and sharing between government departments and the public.

The Shenzhen Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau and Vanke Service have used various promotional methods such as official platforms, social media, community posters, and on-site activities to carry out more than 80 online and offline educational activities. These include environmental protection themed propaganda such as "International Biodiversity Day | Lend a Hand for All Life," "River with You | Proper Drainage for Harmonious Coexistence with Water," and "Our Rivers, Let's Protect Together - Say No to Non-point Source Pollution." These activities make ecological civilization education interesting, substantial, and warm, integrating ecological and environmental protection concepts such as protecting biodiversity, promoting sustainable development, water conservation, and harmonious coexistence between humans and nature into various promotional activities, influencing more than 700,000 people in society. More than 50 articles on environmental knowledge have been published through the "Reed Green Technology" WeChat Official Account, with coverage in national and city-level media, and promoted on the Ministry of Ecology and Environment's public account, reaching a total of more than 200,000 reads. A public participation platform for supervising and providing feedback on water environmental issues has also been established on this public account, enhancing the motivation of citizens to actively participate in the protection of water environment.

Refining Quality to Integrate Environmental Protection Concepts into the Big Picture

In recent years, public welfare propaganda for the ecological environment has entered an era of "quality," which means that environmental protection propaganda activities must form a standardized, efficient, and personalized activity model. The river water quality science and technology control project has continuously emphasized the standardization, systematization, and personalization of activities, and has precisely divided the audience and content of activities for different groups such as community residents, teachers and students, and social workers: online propaganda focuses on customization, using various media such as the "RGT Reed Environmental Science" public account, community posters, Vanke Service's own platform "Zhuzher" App, and news media to popularize environmental knowledge among different audience groups; offline activities emphasize specificity, actively exploring and promoting the opening of various environmental protection facilities such as water purification plants and carbon-neutral experimental parks to the public, and through "on-site visits + scientific explanations", making environmental education truly substantial and embedding environmental concepts into people's hearts.

Combined with the project positioning, a series of cartoon images of "Reed Environmental Little Guardians" designed independently are used according to the different themes of each activity, changing into different shapes and expressions of cartoon images, attracting citizens to take photos and clock in through activity booths, activity boards, activity banners, and activity hand cards; at the same time, the image of the little guardian is customized into activity gifts (such as Reed Environmental Guardian figurines, canvas bags, notebooks, commemorative medals, etc.) to reward citizens who participate in the activities, integrating the figure of the environmental guardian into the daily life of citizens.

“Shenzhen River and Lake Water Ecological Technology Control” model- the series of activities "All Citizens Participate, Co-manage and Share, Jointly Protect Beautiful Rivers and Lakes" have overcome the common problems of long-term lack of personnel and single methods in environmental protection propaganda, allowing more members of the public to participate in environmental protection propaganda activities, which has gained widespread social attention and good social response, and has sustainability and scalability, providing a model for establishing good environmental public relations.

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Source: enews.com.cn

Reporter: Liang Wenxue