Alibaba’s green data centre sits near the Qiandao Lake, Hangzhou, China. Photo credit: Alibaba/China.org.cn
One of the largest players in China’s e-commerce sector, Alibaba, has joined forces with various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with the aim of protecting water resources in the nation.
On Saturday, 15th April, the Alibaba Foundation and a number of NGOs formed an alliance during a meeting held in Hangzhou, in the eastern Zhejiang Province, regarding the protection of water resources and green development.
Alliance members include Alibaba Foundation, the Beijing Green Foundation, Green Hunan, the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, and Friends of Nature, among others.
Simultaneously, Green Hunan and Alibaba disclosed their plans to install a river-guarding centre in the Yangtze River valley. In three years, they intend to have approximately 2,000 people serving as “folk river chiefs”, who will report on issues like foul-smelling water, while also actively engaging in water source protection.
Senior Vice-President of Alibaba Foundation, Jin Jianhang, is also of the opinion that the public should also be encouraged to participate in the protection of the environment. “We should promote the disclosure of environmental information and make it visual, so that the public at anytime can focus on the environmental issues,” he said.
Zhejiang provincial environmental protection department director, Fang Min, stated that environmental protection needs the help of the whole society. Various governmental departments can work together to engage all levels of society through efforts in cross-section cooperation dn unified actions, thereby facilitating positive results all around, he continued.
“We hope to work with more organisations to promote the rule of law in the field of environment,” Secretary General of the Beijing Friends of Nature Foundation, Zhang Boju, said in an interview with Eco-Business.
China began appointing “river chiefs” in December 2016, giving them responsibilities that include ecological restoration, pollution prevention and control, as well as resource protection, among others. Their performances will be evaluated and they will also be answerable to any environmental or water damage in areas under their care.
Environmental protection and restoration is a primary concern for the development plan concerning the economy depending on the Yangtze River, as it supports more than 600 million people on about that fifth of land in China.
Source: Eco-Business
