LANZHOU: For nearly 20 years, Zhoema Gyalpo has made it his mission to pick up garbage on the banks of the Yellow River, China’s second-longest river.
The Tibetan man from northwest China’s Gansu Province hiked about 430 km with his family and fellow villagers in 2021 on a trip lasting over 40 days along the Yellow River, cleaning up its banks.
For him, it was his way of protecting China’s “mother river.”
Zhoema lives in the county of Maqu of Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. In the Tibetan language, Maqu means “the Yellow River.” The river has a meandering section of around 430 km in the county.
Located at the eastern tip of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the county is a primary area of water conservation in the upper reaches of the Yellow River. The wetland in Maqu covers an area of more than 374,000 hectares. “The river and the grassland nourish generations of people living here. We cherish them,” said Zhoema. Zhoema Gyalpo used to be a herder. Though living in the lush meadow on the bank of the Yellow River, he noticed that the county suffered from severe environmental degradation due to climate changes and various human activities.
“The grassland vegetation degraded sharply as a consequence of over-grazing and garbage pollution,” Zhoema Gyalpo said, adding that plastic waste once polluted both the river and the grassland, sometimes causing cattle deaths. –Agencies
