The top environmental watchdog made public the water quality rankings of major cities across the country for the first time on May 7, hoping to pressure local governments to redouble their efforts to improve water quality via media exposure.
The country experienced a general improvement in its surface water quality in the first quarter of this year. Of the 1,940 national monitoring sections, 74.3 percent were found to have fairly good water quality — at or above Grade III in China’s five-tier water quality system, up by 8 percentage points year-on-year — according to a media release from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment on May 7.
It said 6 percent of the sections were found with water below Grade V, the lowest level, down by 3.6 percentage points. The major pollutants in the water were ammonia nitrogen, total phosphorus and chemical oxygen demand.
While the Yangtze River and the Pearl River basins were found to have fairly good water in general, another four of the seven major river basins in the country, including the Yellow River and Huaihe River basins, experienced mild pollution. The Liaohe River basin was the only one with medium-level pollution, it said.
The Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region outnumbers all other regions with 11 cities in the top 30, though Ya’an, Sichuan province, tops the list. Shanxi province has the most cities — six — in the bottom 30 cities in the ranking. Lyuliang, Shanxi, ranks last.
“The main reason for publishing the rankings is to pressure local governments to intensify their efforts in water protection,” said Hu Kemei, deputy director of the ministry’s environmental monitoring, adding that publishing the rankings has proved successful in improving air quality because it tends to strengthen efforts by local governments.
Disclosure of the information will also facilitate the public’s participation in supervising the government’s work and encouraging governments to fulfill their duty, she added.
