The reporter learned from the Ministry of Water Resources that the Haihe River Basin has recently completed a new round of groundwater over-exploitation zone demarcation work. Monitoring data shows that the over-exploitation volume of groundwater in the basin has decreased by more than 80% compared with ten years ago.

Spring returns to the earth. In Youfangkou Village, Dongguang County, Cangzhou, Hebei Province, villagers are fetching water from an ancient well with a history of more than 600 years. This ancient well has dried up for many years due to excessive groundwater exploitation. In recent years, not only has the water level returned to nearly 10 meters deep, but the water level in January this year also rose by 2.2 meters compared with the same period last year.

Hawley Tang, a villager in Youfangkou Village, Dongguang Town, Dongguang County, Cangzhou City: The water suddenly came up. People were very curious. They took some water home and tasted it. It was quite sweet.

The resurrected ancient wells in Cangzhou benefited from the overexploitation and treatment of groundwater in the country in recent years. The reporter learned from the Ministry of Water Resources that after years of governance, the area of ​​groundwater over-exploitation areas across the country has generally declined, especially the problem of groundwater over-exploitation in the Haihe River Basin has been effectively alleviated.

According to the latest evaluation results of the groundwater overexploitation zone in 2024, the amount of groundwater overexploitation in Haihe Basin decreased by 83.5% compared with 2015. The shallow groundwater and deep groundwater in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei governance area rebounded by 3.19 meters and 8.46 meters respectively compared with 2018.

In Beijing, comprehensive management of groundwater overexploitation is continuing. Through water source replacement and joint scheduling of multiple water sources, precisely replenish the underground while reducing the amount of groundwater exploitation. Over the past ten years, Beijing has built 12 new surface water plants, with a daily water supply capacity of more than 2 million cubic meters.

Zhou Zheng, Deputy Director of Water Supply Management Office of Beijing Water Affairs Bureau: We have vigorously promoted the replacement of self-produced wells and connected public water supply to 1,350 communities and units. With this work alone, we can reduce the mining of groundwater by more than 100 million cubic meters per year.

At present, the severely over-exploited groundwater areas in Beijing have been cleared, and the area of ​​severely subsided areas on the ground has been reduced by 99%. The groundwater level in the plain area has rebounded for nine consecutive years, increasing reserves by nearly 7 billion cubic meters.

Deputy Director of Haihe Water Conservancy Committee of the Ministry of Water Resources: In the next step, continue to strengthen water conservation in key areas, strictly control the scale and intensity of water resource development, and increase the replacement of water sources. Implement groundwater replenishment in rivers and lakes, strictly utilize and control groundwater, ensure that the groundwater water level does not decrease in normal water intake years, and gradually achieve groundwater replenishment balance.