Environmental ministry releases water quality lists

The top environmental watchdog publicized the water quality ranking of major cities across the country for the first time on Tuesday, hoping to pressure local governments to enhance efforts to improve water quality via media exposure.

The country experienced a general improvement in its surface water quality in the first quarter this year. Among 1,940 national monitoring sections, 74.3 percent were found to have fairly good water quality at or above Grade III. This is a year-on-year improvement of 8 percentage points, according to a media release from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment sent out on Tuesday.

The release also said 6 percent of sections found water below Grade V, the lowest in the country's five-tier water quality system, down 3.6 percentage points. The major tests for pollutants in the water are ammonia nitrogen levels, total phosphorus and chemical oxygen demand.

While the Yangtze River and the Pearl River basins were found to have generally fairly good water, four of the seven major river basins in the country, including the Yellow River and Huaihe River basins, experienced mild pollution. Liaohe River basin was the only one with medium level pollution, the report alleged.

Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region outnumbers all other regions by number of cities in the top 30 with 11, though Yaan city, Sichuan province, took the No. 1 spot. Shanxi province has the largest number of cities in the bottom of the ranking with six, and its Lyuliang city ranks last.

"The main purpose to publish the ranking is to pressure local governments to intensify their efforts in water protection," said Hu Kemei, deputy director of the ministry's ecological environment monitor, who added the exposure of air quality ranking proved to be successful in improving air quality via strengthened efforts from local governments.

The disclosure of the information will also facilitate the public's participation in supervising the government's work and ensuring governments to fulfill their duties, she added.

In addition to the water quality ranking, the ministry also published improvements in major cities over the past three months. While very few cities from the developed regions in East and South China were listed in the top 30 and the last 30 in the other ranking, many of them appear in the top 30 for improvements made. Qingdao city in Shandong province, for example, saw its water quality improve by almost 40 percent.

The two rankings will be published every three months, according to the ministry.