Over the past six years, Gui Tao, 42, has walked along a 1.34-kilometer-long section of the Yellow River countless times. What should be a 10-minute walk often takes him almost an hour, as he constantly stops to pick up garbage and check for floating debris.

Gui is the Party secretary of Chentan village in the city of Qingtongxia, Northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region. In 2017, he was appointed as the "river chief", responsible for protecting the environment of a section of the Yellow River that runs near the village.

Born and raised near the Yellow River, also known as China's "mother river", Gui knows its importance to the villagers and his responsibility to protect it better than anyone. "When I was a child, I often played by the riverside. The farmland will only produce a harvest every year with the nourishment from the river's water," he says.

He conducts 16 patrols along the section every month and addresses issues, such as littering and the illegal dumping of construction waste. Whenever Gui detects a problem along the watercourse, he takes a photo and, on the spot, uploads the information to an app developed by Ningxia's water conservancy department.

After an investigation is carried out by relevant government departments, he will receive feedback through the app to help him solve the problem.

Gui has incorporated his hobby of flying camera drones into his daily work. "The drone can take photos and videos from a broader perspective and help me inspect the river more clearly," he says.

The river section now has five village cadres, 14 community workers, and five cleaners as guardians of the "mother river".

"Although there is no industrial pollution, the river used to be turbid, floating with garbage. Now, it is cleaner, with more rare birds being spotted along the riverside," Gui says.

He is among the 4,330 "river chiefs" in Ningxia jointly safeguarding the ecological environment of the rivers across the region.

People's awareness of the need to protect the Yellow River has grown, as many now realize that the river is the source of their drinking water and, therefore, has to be protected.

"Our job has become easier, as garbage is now barely seen alongside the riverbank," says Ma Xiuli, 66, who works as a cleaner along the waterway.

Thanks to years of unwavering efforts, the water quality in the Ningxia section of the Yellow River has remained at Class II in recent years, and the proportion of surface water at Class III or above has reached 90 percent, according to Ningxia's water conservancy department.

Surface water quality in China is divided into five classes, with Class I being the highest quality.

"It's my honor to serve as 'river chief' in the village. I will do my utmost to protect our 'mother river' and ensure our future generations can have clean water to drink," Gui says.