The new Yangtze River Delta Ecology and Greenery Integration Demonstration Zone should lay emphasis on water ecology treatment and have a coordinated intangible cultural heritage protection system, according to speeches local political advisers made at a plenary meeting of the ongoing CPPCC Shanghai Committee’s annual session yesterday.

On behalf of the committee’s population, resource, environment and construction sections, local CPPCC member Cai Fangming gave a speech with suggestions about the zone’s water treatment and economic development.

Cai said that nearly 70 percent of land in the zone is used for ecological goals and the green coverage ratio exceeds 40 percent. It has more than 400 lakes and ponds and water surfaces cover 18.6 percent of the total area.

He thinks that transregional water ecology protection requires coordination, and unified regulations should be applied in regional environment management and control as well as the establishment of water environment monitoring and warning systems. Mechanism on limiting the sewage discharge should also be improved.

Rules on ecology and environment law enforcement should be unified and strict.

Green industries like energy saving, environmental protection, eco-farming and green finance should be promoted in this area. Marathons by the lake, cycling and water sports can be developed with other programs on tourism, cultural innovation and elderly care.

According to another political adviser Shen Qinhua, a coordinated intangible cultural heritage protection system should be set up in the zone to promote regional culture.

Shen said that Shanghai’s Qingpu, Zhejiang’s Jiashan and Suzhou’s Wujiang in this zone are all rich sources of folk tales, traditional crafts and arts. There are 319 intangible cultural heritage items at different levels in the zone.

“Building a system for these intangible cultural heritage items is key to their protection. An integrated layout of the items in this zone can better facilitate the communications between different areas, which is positive for their overall protection,” Shen said.

He also mentioned that the means to protect intangible cultural heritage should be creative and adjusted to local conditions. “For instance, Wujiang District is creating an intangible cultural heritage ecology protection zone, which takes the old town of Tongli and its neighboring villages, lakes and wetlands as the key area and gives overall protection to the natural and cultural environment there.”