Water guardian's tide of progress

"As you connect the dots of a water system, hydrology, climate and ecology, you'll find it very interesting, taken as a whole," Xie says.

Upon graduation, Xie received offers from economically developed cities, including Beijing, Shenzhen in Guangdong province and Nanjing in Jiangsu province, but he chose to stay put.

"I found three out of the four lakes, such as Hulun Lake and Daihai Lake in my hometown that I studied, were all highlighted by the government for strengthening ecological restoration," Xie says.

"It gave me a sense of mission, since I had already had a good grasp of related theories, which would pave the way for me to conduct field work," he says, adding that the decision was also partly out of nostalgia.

In order to ensure the surface water environmental quality monitoring data is factual, accurate and comprehensive, the central government and the autonomous region have built a number of monitoring stations.

A major responsibility of Xie's work is sorting out and analyzing mass data from those stations across the autonomous region.

"We need to make sense of those abstract data," Xie says.

For example, some data discrepancies might be temporary due to extreme weather like heavy rain or complex geological conditions, while some are actually a result of human activities.

When some of the water stations were put into use at the beginning, Xie and his team were able to identify certain enterprises that stealthily discharged pollutants through the data.

"It could lead to a significant increase in the main indicators of surface water through the analysis of continuous real-time data from the automatic monitoring," Xie says.

Then, Xie and his colleagues immediately reported the problem to law enforcement departments, which urged those enterprises to improve the sewage treatment process, and reduce the concentration of pollutant emissions.

But, since those stations can only be built on sites with access to electricity, water, good transportation and the internet, it's still necessary for Xie and his colleagues to conduct field research.

"The west of the region is relatively dry, so we wouldn't miss any rivers and lakes, but the eastern part enjoys relatively rich water resources, therefore, we choose our subjects selectively," he explains.

As his work experience grows, Xie has managed to deliver monthly environmental quality reports on key lakes in Inner Mongolia and takes a lead in drafting the construction plan for an ecological and environmental monitoring system for the Yellow River basin in the region.

"Although Zhilei is young, he has become a backbone (of the division) and takes on a large amount of important environmental monitoring work," says Tian Yongli, head of Inner Mongolia's general environmental monitoring station.

His work laid a solid technical foundation for pollution prevention and water improvement, Tian adds.

Xie's work has also enabled him to see the positive changes in local environment over the years.

"It surprised me to see that a long dried riverbed near my home (in Tongliao) started to have water flow through it in 2022," he says.

"And the water quality improvement has been evident over the past five years, with strange odors and colors in the water all gone."

In particular, the Hulun Lake has seen its water area expanded, wetland ecology recovered and biodiversity improved.

The water area of Hulun Lake has expanded to about 224,400 hectares, an increase of nearly 50,000 hectares from a decade ago, according to the Hulun Lake National Nature Reserve Administration.

The lake's water volume, meanwhile, has reached 13.97 billion cubic meters, a near-record high, the administration says.

The wetland ecology of the once dwindling lake has gradually recovered and the biodiversity in the area has continued to improve. Since 2016, the number of bird species recorded in the area has increased from 333 to 345, and the number of mammal species has risen from 35 to 38.

Xie has come to realize how the steady monitoring and accurate scientific analysis at work play a vital role in establishing environmental protection standards and helping to make major environmental protection decisions.

"I feel fortunate to be a guardian of the lucid waters and lush mountains," he says.