People's support

In 2018, China appointed 24,000 lake chiefs to help protect their ecosystems, in the same way that its river chiefs protect rivers.

Lake chiefs supervise aquatic resource protection, pollution prevention and control, and environmental restoration. Their performance is assessed and they are held accountable for environmental damage.

Chen Jian, Party secretary of the Dali Bai autonomous prefecture, told China Daily in August that he attributed the effectiveness of pollution treatment at Erhai to the area's residents. He said that without their support, the government could not continue its work.

"At the beginning, most of them didn't support the bans," Chen said. "After we explained the importance and necessity of protecting Erhai Lake and talked with them about the pollution they generated, they changed their attitude from resistance to understanding."

Zhang Bo, head of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment's Department of Water Ecology and Environment, said at a news conference in February last year that despite recent progress, it still took longer to restore a lake than a river, where the flow of water was faster.