"Xinhua Viewpoint" reporter's recent research along the Yangtze River found that under the high-pressure situation of continuous severe crackdown, the management order of sand mining in the main stream of the Yangtze River continued to stabilize and improve. However, driven by interests, some lawless elements have turned their attention to the tributaries and carried out sand mining in the name of "dredging project", and the cases of "ants moving" type of sand theft are frequent.
In the name of "dredging",
reporters encountered many sand carriers when visiting tributaries, mostly under the banner of "dredging" and "comprehensive river management".
"On the surface, some ships are dredging engineering ships with complete certificates, but they are likely to engage in illegal sand mining activities with strong concealment, which makes it more difficult for us to crack down on illegal sand mining." Liu Pinggang, Director of the Supervision and Inspection Department of the Sand Administration Bureau of the Yangtze River Water Conservancy Commission, introduced that this kind of dredging engineering ship, like an ordinary ship, can mine sand by raising the sand mining equipment.
"The kind of sand stealing ship with six sand suction pipes can absorb about 2000 tons of river sand in an hour and sell hundreds of thousands of yuan." Police officers who had cracked a major case of illegal mining of river sand told reporters.
Three sand carriers filled with river sand are sailing on a tributary of the Yangtze River.
A university professor who has participated in the evaluation of water conservancy projects for a long time worries that some places, in order to obtain economic benefits and meet the needs of engineering construction, carry out sand mining in the name of "dredging". "Many districts and counties along the Yangtze River are queuing up to apply for'dredging 'rivers, and I dare not sign some of the'dredging' projects that I am asked to review.". In order to avoid the supervision and approval of the higher authorities, some places also break up the so-called "ecological dredging" projects into parts and cut large projects into small ones.
Reporter research and development found that some sand theft gangs also "whitewash" illegal sand mining by falsely opening, forging and reusing sand and gravel mining management sheets. In July 2021, a multi-department joint law enforcement found that an invisible sand suction pump ship stole river sand in a water area in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. The police seized 15 sand and gravel mining and transportation management orders that were falsely opened and resold, each of which was sold at a price of about 100,000 yuan.
The
reporter visited a tributary of the Yangtze River and walked only two or three kilometers along the river to see three small sand suction machines parked in the river. Some are small sand suction rafts, which use pipes to suck sand in the water and can be operated by one person; some are excavators, which dig sand directly on the exposed riverbed and then transport it away by small trucks. The reporter saw along the river that due to excessive sand mining, many broken riverbeds were shocking: the river course was covered with deep pits, the water inside the pits became dead storage capacity, and the outside of the pits was withered and covered with weeds. A sand mining site on a tributary of the
Yangtze River. After the reporter pointed out the problem, the local government carried out a rectification of the sand-stealing machines.
"There used to be a river sand and gravel mining area here, but after more than ten years of digging, there is almost no room for large-scale mining, and now sand mining has been banned." A local township cadre said. However, despite the ban on sand mining, the continuous "ant moving" type of sand theft has been prohibited repeatedly. When visiting other tributaries
in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, reporters also found similar situations. Water conservancy cadres and police generally said that the number of illegal sand mining cases in the main stream of the Yangtze River has decreased year by year through the implementation of the "quadruple list" (sand and gravel mining and transportation management list, generally in quadruple form) management, the use of scientific and technological means to increase inspection, and frequent cross-sectoral joint law enforcement. However, small-scale cases such as "ants moving" sand theft in the tributaries of the Yangtze River have become a frequent problem at present, and law enforcement is difficult and costly.
"Some villagers are secretly mining sand.". When we came, they stopped, and when we left, they continued to collect. We have no law enforcement power and are very helpless. A township cadre admitted that, especially since last year's drought, the water level has dropped and the riverbed has been exposed, making it more convenient for "ants to move" to steal sand. In the middle of
last year, Yongxiu County, Jiangxi Province, cracked a "ant moving" type of illegal mining case, criminal suspect Zhu, Liu and other five people in more than a year, "ant moving" type of illegal mining of river sand made hundreds of thousands of yuan. A county-level city in the Jingjiang section of
the Yangtze River is famous for its high-quality river sand, and the staff of the comprehensive law enforcement center told reporters that small-scale sand mining cases encountered difficulties in law enforcement. "In many cases, a small amount of sand is stolen many times, and the amount of money involved in a single case often fails to meet the filing standard." In the
interview, grass-roots law enforcement officers told reporters that the low price of small sand mining tools is also one of the reasons for the frequent occurrence of cases. Reporters in the e-commerce platform search found that only about 3000 yuan can be purchased to install a small sand pump with silencer. "With a simple pontoon, it can be used to extract river sand, which can extract about 25 tons per hour." Businessmen told reporters. The riverbed near a sand quarry in a tributary of the
Yangtze River. Li Jianhua, a professor at the School of Environmental Science and Engineering
of Tongji University, and other experts interviewed said that illegal mining of river sand will bring multiple negative impacts: First, it will destroy the habitat of aquatic organisms and affect the ecology of the Yangtze River; second, it may lead to the decline of groundwater level and the deterioration of water quality, endangering the safety of drinking water for people along the river; third, it may lead to the decline of groundwater level and the deterioration of water quality; Third, excessive sand mining will greatly change the topography of the riverbed and threaten the safety of dikes and ship navigation. In
2022, the Ministry of Public Security organized 11 provinces (cities) in the Yangtze River Basin and the shipping public security organs of the Yangtze River to carry out in-depth special actions to crack down on illegal sand mining crimes in the Yangtze River, detected more than 270 such cases, beat down more than 90 criminal gangs, and cracked down on illegal sand mining in the Yangtze River. More than 190 illegal sand mining and transporting vessels were seized, and more than 2.2 million tons of river sand were verified, involving 320 million yuan. Relevant officials of
the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission believe that with the economic recovery, the demand for sand and gravel may increase, and it is necessary to prevent the rebound of illegal sand mining driven by windfall profits. The Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of the Yangtze River, which came into effect
in 2021, clearly stipulates that illegal sand mining activities shall be confiscated of illegal gains and vessels, equipment and tools used for illegal activities, and a fine of not less than two times but not more than twenty times the value of the goods shall be imposed; if the value of the goods is less than 100,000 yuan, a fine of not less than 200,000 yuan but not more than 2 million yuan shall be imposed. Relevant leaders of
the Yangtze River Water Conservancy Commission suggested that more attention should be paid to the management of sand mining in the relevant tributaries and lakes of the Yangtze River, and that the management experience of illegal sand mining in the main stream of the Yangtze River should be popularized to the whole basin as soon as possible.
Firstly, the sediment supply and resource distribution of main and tributaries and lakes should be considered as a whole, the relevant system of comprehensive utilization of dredged sand and the approval process of dredging projects should be further improved, and the management measures of comprehensive utilization of dredged sand should be formulated in line with the actual situation in various regions. At the same time, we should accelerate the intelligent supervision of sand mining, give priority to "technical defense" and supplement "civil air defense", promote electronic fence technology and electronic measurement technology, improve the automation and intelligence level of river sand mining supervision technology, and avoid overtime and excessive sand mining in legal projects.
Liu Pinggang and other insiders suggest that we should continue to strengthen the supervision of ship refitting and reduce the number of sand-stealing ships from the source; intensify the crackdown on the "ant moving" type of stealing in the Yangtze River Basin, conduct regular and surprise inspections of relevant river sections; speed up the unification of sand and gravel "identity cards", and implement closed-loop supervision of sand and gravel mining, transportation and sales related bills.
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