Difficulties and Countermeasures of Rural Human Settlement Environment Governance in Tianjin

Di WANG, Yongyi WANG, Chunjie LI

1. School of Economics and Management, Tianjin Agricultural University, Tianjin 300384, China; 2. Dean’s Office, Tianjin Agricultural University, Tianjin 300384, China

Abstract The course of rural human settlement environment governance in Tianjin could be roughly divided into four stages: germination, initiation, promotion and deepening. After the development for nearly 20 years, rural human settlement environment governance of Tianjin is faced with many difficulties, such as imperfect village construction planning, poor use effect of sewage facilities, low participation of farmers, and insufficient financial investment. Therefore, some countermeasures and suggestions are put forward, such as scientific planning and overall consideration, innovating financing mechanism, encouraging diversified investment of funds, and strengthening the publicity of rural human settlement environment governance.

Key words Rural human settlement environment, Governance dilemma, Capital investment, Tianjin

1 The course of rural human settlement environment governance in Tianjin

1.1 Germination stage (2003-2004)

In the

Decision

on

Strengthening

the

Comprehensive

Improvement

of

the

Environment

and

Creating

a

Model

City

of

Environmental

Protection

by Tianjin People’s Government in 2003, it pointed out that the improvement of the urban environment should be focused, especially infrastructure construction on both sides of the Haihe River, construction of urban sewage and domestic waste treatment facilities, urban water environment, urban dilapidated houses, and urban comprehensive transportation system. There was no special arrangement for the remediation of rural environmental problems in the document. On December 21, 2004, the

Tianjin

Environmental

Protection

Regulations

(revised in 2004) was passed in the 16Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14People’s Congress of Tianjin. Article 35 provides that people’s governments at all levels should strengthen the protection of the agricultural environment, develop and support ecological agriculture and green food, prevent and control the occurrence and development of soil pollution, vegetation destruction, soil erosion, water source depletion, species extinction and other ecological disorders, promote integrated control of plant diseases and insect pests, and rationally use chemical fertilizer, pesticide, plant growth hormone, agricultural film and agricultural chemical materials. It is forbidden to use sewage that exceeds aquaculture and agricultural irrigation standards for cultivation and irrigation, and harmful sludge fertilization is prohibited. This is the earliest document of Tianjin for agricultural environmental protection and governance.

1.2 Initial stage (2005-2011)

With the proposal of building a new socialist countryside at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 16CPC Central Committee in 2005, Tianjin has launched the construction of "civilized ecological villages", and planned to create 154 civilized ecological villages in the year. By the end of 2005, a total of 400 million yuan has been invested in the construction of 205 civilized ecological villages. After five years of construction, a number of rural roads, sewage and garbage treatment facilities have been newly built and reconstructed, and rural infrastructure has been continuously improved. By the end of 2011, a total of 1 054 civilized ecological villages had been built in Tianjin. In July of 2010, Tianjin Municipal Committee of the National Revolution pointed out that with the rapid development of rural economy and society in recent years, the rural ecological environment in some areas was deteriorating year by year. Agriculture has evolved into the industry with the most serious grade separation pollution, and the pollution has stridden from the city to the countryside. At present, the environment is sacrificed in exchange for the temporary prosperity of the economy in many rural areas, and some small-scale processing enterprises such as papermaking and chemical industry are allowed to "go to the mountains and the countryside", causing serious damage to the rural ecological environment.

1.3 Promotion stage (2012-2017)

In 2012, the 18National Congress of the Party was held, which pointed out the direction for the work in the next five years. In the afternoon on June 11, 2012, the large-scale TV selection activity of "Tianjin Beautiful Countryside" of "Rural Commercial Bank Cup" in 2012, which was jointly sponsored by the Propaganda Department of Tianjin Municipal Party Committee, the municipal civilization office, the agriculture and industry committee of the municipal committee, the municipal committee of agriculture, and Tianjin TV station, and undertaken by the public channel of Tianjin TV Station, was launched in Tianjin Digital TV Building. It aimed to deeply implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 10CPC Central Committee and Tianjin Municipal Committee, further promote the construction of beautiful Tianjin, speed up the implementation of a number of key projects, and obviously improve ecological environment and people’s production and living conditions in whole city. On September 18, 2013, Tianjin decided to implement "No.1 project" of beautiful Tianjin, namely the project of "four clean and one green", mainly containing clean air action, clean river action, clean village action, clean community action and greening action. Started from August of 2013, the work of municipal organs, municipal enterprises and institutions contacting the masses to help the poor villages in pairs has been carried out in Tianjin. Nearly 2 000 outstanding cadres were selected from 219 municipal units in two batches to form the village working group, and 500 poor villages were helped in pairs for four years. It vigorously implemented organizational, industrial, technological and livelihood assistance, which has effectively promoted the economic and social development of poor villages. Statistical data of Tianjin Agricultural and Rural Committee showed that assistance work for four years solidly promoted beautiful village construction of "six modernizations and six haves", and a total of 630 million yuan was invested by the supporting units, which completed 2 783 infrastructure projects, hardened 5.741 7 million mof road, and increased 26 000 lighting facilities. 370 villages reached construction standard of "six modernizations and six haves" beautiful village, and all 500 difficult villages have been built into "clean villages". "Four clean and one green" and the construction of beautiful countryside were advancing at the same time, and rural human settlement environment of Tianjin has been significantly improved. After the

Guiding

Opinions

of

the

General

Office

of

the

State

Council

on

Improving

Rural

Human

Settlement

Environment

in 2014, the

Notice

of

General

Office

of

Tianjin

Municipal

People

’

s

Government

Transmitting

Opinions

of

Municipal

Agricultural

Committee

,

Municipal

Construction

Committee

and

Municipal

Environmental

Protection

Bureau

on

Improving

Rural

Living

Environment

and

Accelerating

Beautiful

Rural

Construction

of

Tianjin

was issued on May 8, 2015, which was used to guide construction of rural human settlement environment in Tianjin.

1.4 Deepening stage (2018 to now)

In the report of the 19National Congress of the Communist Party of China, general secretary Xi Jinping clearly put forward the comprehensive implementation of rural revitalization strategy. In No.1 central document

Opinions

of

the

State

Council

of

the

CPC

Central

Committee

on

Implementing

the

Rural

Revitalization

Strategy

of 2018, the implementation of rural revitalization strategy has been fully deployed, and "continuous improvement of rural human settlement environment" was emphasized. Three-year action plan of rural human settlement environment governance was implemented, and rural garbage, sewage treatment and village appearance improvement were the main directions. By integrating various resources and strengthening various measures, the governance of prominent problems in rural human settlement environment were steadily and orderly promoted. It unremittingly promoted the "toilet revolution" in rural areas, and vigorously carried out the construction and transformation of rural household sanitary toilets. The treatment of manure and sewage was synchronously carried out, and the realization of full coverage of harmless toilets in rural areas was accelerated, to strive to make up for the shortcomings that affected the life quality of farmers. It gradually completed the "coal to gas", "coal to electricity" and new energy utilization, and gradually established a safe housing guarantee mechanism for rural low-income groups. In February of 2018, General Office of the CPC Central Committee and General Office of the State Council printed and issued the

Three

-

year

Action

Plan

for

Rural

Human

Settlement

Environment

Governance

, containing six key tasks: promoting rural domestic waste treatment, carrying out treatment of toilet feces, promoting rural domestic sewage treatment step by step, improving the appearance of the village, strengthening village planning and management, and improving the construction and management mechanism. On November 29, 2018, the Meeting of Tianjin City to Promote the Implementation of Rural Revitalization Strategy and Three-year Action Work Deployment of Rural Human Settlement Environment Governance was held in Tianjin Auditorium. The main leaders of Tianjin Municipal Committee attended the meeting and emphasized that it should adhere to taking Xi Jinping’s socialist ideology with China’s characteristics in new times and the spirit of the 19CPC National Congress as the guidance, thoroughly understand the important thought of general secretary Xi Jinping on the work of agriculture, rural areas and farmers, give priority to the development of agriculture and rural areas, promote the overall revitalization of rural areas, and vigorously improve rural human settlement environment. Tianjin Agricultural and Rural Committee carefully implemented the spirit of the national conference on improving rural human settlement environment, and learned beautiful rural construction experience of Zhejiang Province. The overall thinking of speeding up the construction of beautiful countryside was proposed, to ensure that the "five tough battles" in garbage, sewage, latrines, roads and village appearance, and agricultural non-point source pollution treatment were firmly won, and complete the task of rural human settlement environment governance in an all-round way. By 2020, the goal of "five 100% and one significant improvement" would be achieved. To 2022, 1 000 beautiful villages will be built in Tianjin. Based on the

Strategic

Planning

of

Rural

Revitalization

in

Tianjin

and the

Three

-

year

Action

Plan

for

Rural

Human

Settlement

Environment

Governance

in

Tianjin

, Tianjin Agricultural and Rural Committee organized the compilation of overall planning of beautiful countryside construction in the city, strengthened urban-rural integration, industrial integration, multi-planning integration and overall promotion, and ensured that planning became "golden and iron rules" of beautiful countryside construction. According to the requirement, 100% of rural domestic waste would be treated in factories by 2020; 100% of the domestic sewage would be discharged up to the standard in planned and reserved villages; 100% of dry toilets in rural areas would be transformed; 100% of rural highways would be maintained; 100% of village environment governance would be covered; agricultural non-point source pollution control level would be improved significantly. Meanwhile, it promoted to create an upgraded version of beautiful countryside step by step. It is planned to build 1 000 beautiful villages by 2022, and all the planned and reserved villages will be built into beautiful villages with strong industry, complete facilities, excellent environment, wealthy group and popular support by 2025, striving to take the lead in rural revitalization in China.

2 Dilemma of rural human settlement environment governance in Tianjin

2.1 Imperfect village construction planning

The improvement of rural human settlement environment is a systematic project, which needs making perfect planning and detailed implementation plan. Through survey, it is found that most of the villages have detailed plans for the improvement of the human settlement environment, and carry out the work smoothly according to the guidance of the relevant departments at a higher level. However, there are still some villages lack of detailed and perfect planning of rural human settlement environment governance. For example, the construction of some villages is carried out in stages. Firstly, the roads in the village are hardened, and then the new roads are demolished, trenched and buried with various pipelines. It not only causes the repeated waste of project funds, but also affects the construction order and progress.

2.2 Poor use effect of sewage and other facilities

In the renovation of rural human settlement environment, most of the solid wastes, such as garbage, have realized the harmless treatment of "village collection-town transportation-district treatment", but the collection and treatment of rural sewage has always been a difficult problem. On the one hand, a certain volume of sewage collection pool is buried in front of and behind the farmer’s house in some villages, to collect the domestic sewage of the farmer, and the sewage is pumped by sanitation vehicles for centralized treatment. This model is the best model to adapt to the needs of farmers in different regions according to local conditions. However, some farmers are unwilling to bear the cost of cleaning and transportation because sanitation vehicles are paid services, which leads to the shutdown of sewage facilities. On the other hand, sewage collection in some villages is the unified laying of sewage pipes, and sewage is finally collected to the sewage treatment station built next to the village. However, the maintenance cost of the sewage treatment station is high, and the villages with low collective economic income can not afford the high maintenance cost, resulting in the shutdown of the sewage treatment station. The sewage is likely to be directly discharged into the wasteland and ditch, causing new environmental pollution.

2.3 Low farmers’ participation in rural human settlement environment governance

Via survey, it is understood that the propaganda of village committee is the main channel of farmers’ information source. Farmers only see the specific contents of sewage and road construction in village, but they don’t know the specific treatment measures. Via survey on rural human settlement environment in Tianjin, Chang Ting finds that the participation of villagers in the improvement of rural human settlement environment is low. All villages have been equipped with cleaners, and 52% of them have never participated in the cleaning. The advantage lies in the gradual marketization of sanitation, but farmers become bystanders and think that environmental services should be provided by the government. The survey on cleaning up of actual villages by Liu Junli displays that villagers’ sense of participation is seriously inadequate. More than half of the population has never been involved in the village health cleaning, reflecting that the rural residents’ awareness of the main responsibility of environmental protection and home care is insufficient. The survey results on villagers’ willingness to pay for garbage show that only 40% of the residents can accept the charging system for garbage disposal, but the amount of the fee is low, and more than 80% of the villagers can accept the garbage disposal fee no more than 10 yuan per month.

2.4 Insufficient financial input

The imbalance of urban-rural development leads to the rural human settlement environment lagging behind the urban areas. At present, the improvement of human settlement environment in rural areas is mainly carried out by government financial investment. However, due to the wide range of rural human settlement environment, there is a great demand for funds. An ordinary village needs 3-5 million yuan for sewage pipe network laying, road maintenance, garbage treatment, dangerous house reconstruction and other projects, and the renovation of the human settlement environment in more than 2 000 villages in the city requires at least several billion or even tens of billions of capital investment. Under double effects of novel coronavirus pneumonia and Tianjin’s financial tightening in recent years, the government’s financial investment in rural human settlement environment governance is obviously insufficient, and the source of funds needs to be expanded.

3 Countermeasures and suggestions to improve the effectiveness of rural human settlement environment governance

3.1 Scientific planning and overall consideration

Many government departments should strengthen cooperation and implement multi-planning integration. According to actual situation, targeted and effective governance plan should be formulated. It should realize the maximization of land utilization rate, and combine the existing buildings and natural resources in various regions. Under the reasonable intervention of the government, it should mobilize the enthusiasm of the villagers and do a good job in planning and design according to local conditions. It should use scientific development strategy, deeply promote the construction of village appearance, housing safety, road construction and sewage treatment, and integrate the rural environmental improvement work with the local rural public infrastructure construction, the overall planning of towns and townships, and the overall planning of new rural communities.

3.2 Innovating financing mechanism and encouraging multiple capital investment

The government should expand channels and develop diversified financing mechanism, drive enterprises, organizations and individuals into the financing mechanism, advocate enterprises to fulfill their social responsibilities and strengthen project docking and cooperation. It should strengthen financial support and establish financial fund reward-subsidy mechanism. Priority should be given to villages with united village leaders, effective work, urgent needs and strong wishes of villagers, wide range of benefits and high participation enthusiasm of the masses to implement outdoor livelihood projects. It should build a number of high-quality projects of "one case, one discussion" financial fund award and compensation of human settlement environment with comprehensive demonstration and driving effect, further amplify the benefit effect of the policy of financial award and compensation, and play the leading role of "one case, one discussion" financial award and compensation in rural revitalization. It should promote the development of financing diversification, open the fund source, create good business environment in whole society, and attract a large number of non-governmental funds to invest in rural human settlement environment governance.

3.3 Strengthening the propaganda of rural human environment management

Due to the incomplete cognition of rural residents and the lack of publicity from the government, the awareness of environmental protection of rural residents is insufficient. For example, the effect is not good in rural areas after the implementation of waste classification, almost no waste classification. The government should strengthen publicity through multiple channels, create a good atmosphere through media camp, and carry out publicity through information channels such as TV and network. Billboards should be built in the place where villagers are gathered, and the government should regularly assign publicity specialists to the villages to explain the hazards and prevention of environmental pollution. The government should play its role, and organize publicity and education activities in village committee, to gradually enhance the awareness of environmental protection of rural residents. It should change the traditional bad habits of village residents, and develop good living habits, making that the work of improving the rural human settlement environment is carried out smoothly.