Grassroots river chiefs appointed in Wuxi

Wuxi's Xinwu district for the first time appointed river chiefs at the grassroots level and launched an app to help them carry out their work on March 22，the 26th World Water Day. The initiatives mark the great strides the district has made in rolling out the river chief system.

In response to the environmental protection and eco-civilization philosophy, the central government ordered all provincial regions to establish a four-tier river chief system from provincial to town-ship levels by the end of 2018.

With 308 waterways being covered with the river chief system at district, town and village levels, Xinwu district is now taking the lead in Wuxi in appointment of grassroots river inspectors.

Meanwhile, the River Chiefs Office of Xinwu district has turned to novel Internet technologies and developed a mobile app to help river chiefs fulfill their environmental protection duties and facilitate public supervision.

The practices will put river chiefs' job performance under public assessment and supervision and they will be held accountable for environmental damage in the water bodies they oversee.

The district government has made concrete efforts to conserve the environment, such as setting detailed goals for tackling black and smelly rivers on provincial and city lists, and notably publicizing the chiefs along rivers and lakes.

Newly appointed river chiefs consist of experts from all walks of life, who are tasked with river patrols and supervision, water resources protection, and pollution prevention and control.

In order to facilitate the work of folk river chiefs and inspectors, a River Chiefs App has been developed to effectively integrate various basic data, monitor data, including pictures, and sustainably improve work efficiency and increase the digital intelligence of the work.

"If we found some problems in the past, we had to write them in a workbook and then report them to the superior, which took a long time," said Zhao Yayan, a volunteer inspector, "But now the River Chiefs App allows us to upload our findings through words and pictures anywhere and anytime. The department concerned comes over as soon as they learn about it."