Industrial park turns crystal capital into green county.
Crackdown on pollution puts sparkle back into Pujiang’s local economy Zhou Chengle, 62, relaxes outside his whitewashed three-story home in Jinhua, East China’s Zhejiang province, and watches the local children paddling in the shallows of a sun-drenched Cuihu Lake.
The crystal industry had brought huge wealth to the county, with Pujiang’s urban residents’ per capita annual disposable income trebling from 9,542 yuan ($1,392) in 2003 to 30,711 yuan a decade later.
But, crucially, the government also invested 5.5 billion yuan to build the Pujiang Crystal Business Park, which opened in August 2015.
The region’s remaining crystal companies were given the choice of moving to the new park or investing in their own sewage treatment systems, according to Huang.
More than 21,000 of Pujiang’s crystal companies shut down as a result of these measures.
Benefits abound The Crystal Park has helped Pujiang’s crystal industry remain competitive.
In Cuihu, Zhou has also prospered from the water campaign.
Related story: Initiative that transformed Zhejiang Zhejiang initiated the Water Movement campaign at the end of 2013.
It aims to tackle five issues: water pollution, flood control, drainage in waterlogged areas, water supply and water conservation.