THE MINISTRY OF ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT announced at a news conference in Beijing on Friday that it is closely working with the country's top legislature to draft a protection law for the Yangtze River that is scheduled to be submitted to the legislature for deliberation before the end of this year. China Daily writer Li Yang comments:

The Yangtze River is one of the two mother rivers of China; the other is the Yellow River. The Yangtze River basin is home to 32 percent of the country's population, and produces 34 percent of its gross domestic product and 33 percent of its grain output.

The importance of the law cannot be overstated. It will better protect the river's ecosystem. It also has symbolic significance as it will be the first law tailor-made for a specific river. In time, other important rivers, lakes and mountain ranges can have their own protection laws, which will provide local law enforcers with a stronger legal basis to fulfill their duties.

President Xi Jinping has twice spoken about the importance of protecting the Yangtze River and the need for green development－in 2016 and 2018－and he has led the drawing up of a detailed plan to protect the Yangtze River. The making of the law therefore reflects the leadership's resolve to protect the Yangtze River and its commitment to sustainable development.

Although it is the Ministry of Ecology and Environment that has blown the whistle to get the ball rolling, the law looks set to be a comprehensive one as it encompass not just the use and protection of the river's water resources, but everything related to the river, such as land and resources, urban and industrial planning, and restoration of the ecology and environment.

But more important, the law, as a specialized law, must stipulate more strict legal liabilities for both wrongdoers and supervisors than the foundation laws, such as the Environmental Protection Law, the Water Pollution Prevention Law, the Water Resources Protection Law, on which it has been based so that it can better fulfill its purpose.

It must also take the Yangtze River's specific conditions into consideration, and effectively fill in the gaps among the aforementioned laws, which have failed to relieve the mounting pressures on the river.

Enforcement of the law will unavoidably be another challenge, as many local governments, particularly in the less-developed middle and upper reaches of the river, still lack the necessary means and capacity to find a balance between development and protection. This is something that will also need to be addressed.