Local officials’ performance in reducing water pollution has become a criterion in the annual evaluation of their work after the mayors of ten cities along a seriously contaminated river and lake signed pledges yesterday with the provincial government of Anhui.

District and county level officials will in turn make similar pledges to city governments concerning water pollution in their jurisdictions, and the mayors said achievements in this area would be a major factor in decisions over promotions and rewards.

Pollution in the Huaihe, one of China's largest rivers, raised alarm amongst governments and environmentalists last year.

In October, four provinces along it, Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong and Henan, signed a pledge to the State Environmental Protection Administration to cut pollution levels.

Chaohu, one of the country's five largest freshwater lakes, has also been troubled with deteriorating water quality in recent years.

Eight of the ten cities involved (Huaibei, Bozhou, Suzhou, Bengbu, Fuyang, Huainan, Chuzhou and Liu'an) are located alongside the Huaihe. The other two (Chaohu and the provincial capital Hefei) are in the lake’s drainage basin.

The cities pledged to reduce the flow of chemical pollutants into the river and lake and to upgrade sewage treatment facilities and capabilities.

They also promised to close more than 100 small paper mills, major sources of pollution, by the end of this year. 

The Huaihe supplies water for around 165 million people in Henan, Hubei, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces in central and east China.

Central government launched a clean-up campaign for the river ten years ago but the pollution there remains grave.

(Xinhua News Agency April 27, 2005)