Drastic changes have taken place in Guangming District in northwestern Shenzhen since local authorities made water treatment one of the district’s development priorities and spared no effort to tackle relevant problems. On Wednesday, journalists from 20 news outlets were invited to visit the Loucun Wetland Park and the Guangming section of the ecological pathway along the Maozhou River to find out how Guangming’s efforts in water treatment have improved residents’ lives. The Loucun Wetland Park, which covers an area of around 8.7 hectares, is located in Loucun Community in Xinhu Subdistrict. Multiple facilities, including rain gardens, grass swales, permeable pathways, green roofs, ecological parking lots, dry stream beds and rainwater detention tanks, have been adopted to build it into a sponge park featuring the natural retention, permeation and purification of rainwater to benefit nearby residents both as an ideal leisure facility and a science popularization education base. The Guangming section of the ecological pathway along the Maozhou River is around 6.8 kilometers in length. With lucid water, green shores, swimming fish and resting egrets, it serves not only ecological but also cultural, economic and landscape functions.(Yu Yuanfan) | 