Air quality in China's major cities remained stable last year, while pollution in some rivers saw certain improvements, the State Environmental Protection Administration reported on Wednesday.
According to the administration's annual report, water quality in the main sections of the country's seven major rivers was better than that in minor sections.
Water quality in the Yangtze River, the Pearl River in south China and the Songhua River in northeast China improved last year, while the Liaohe River in northwest China and the Yellow River became more polluted.
The Yellow and Liaohe rivers now rank first and second on the list of China's most polluted rivers.
Pollution in Taihu Lake in east China's Jiangsu Province and Chaohu Lake in east China's Anhui Province eased but Dianchi Lake in southwest China's Yunnan Province still remained heavily contaminated last year. The three lakes are the most polluted among all of China's lakes.
Improving environmental quality has become a goal of both the government and an increasing number of ordinary citizens.
Premier Zhu Rongji said at a national teleconference earlier this week that China will face a tough battle in environmental protection in the coming years as the country embraces urban development and a growing population.
Last year, the administration monitored the air quality of 340 major cities and found that 117 of them had reached the second level (fairly good) of the national air-quality standard and 114 had reached the third level (slightly polluted).
With second-level air quality, people can comfortably take part in outdoor activities. With the third level, the air still has no apparent polluting effect on human activity.
Pollution worse than the third level harms human health and makes outdoor activities uncomfortable.
The report said sulphur-dioxide pollution in 47 closely monitored cities surpassed the pollution levels of 2000 and need to be improved.
According to a People's Daily report yesterday, the administration said Haikou, Beihai, Zhanjiang, Guilin and Xiamen had the best air quality of all China's cities. All these cities are in southern China.
The cities with the worst air quality were all in northern China - Urumqi, Lanzhou, Taiyuan, Shijiazhuang and Tianjin had the worst air quality.
(China Daily January 11, 2002)
