BEIJING — China is offering a bigger carrot to local governments to encourage enhanced environmental protection of rivers and lakes.

Local governments with marked efforts and achievements in this field will enjoy more support from the central fiscal fund for water conservancy development, the Ministry of Water Resources said.

The ministry will select and reward the 10 best-performing cities and 10 such counties.

Across the nation, China has rolled out "river chief" and "lake chief" systems to assign each waterway in the country a specific steward to prevent pollution.

Official data showed that the area of the country's surface water with good water quality expanded in 2019, with the water quality of China's major lakes also improving.