Rural pollution top priority for MEP

China will ramp up its investment to curb rural pollution, as environmental problems in the country's vast countryside are "increasingly prominent", vice-minister of environmental protection Zhang Lijun told a press conference in Beijing on Friday.

Pollution has aggravated in rural areas due to chemical fertilizers, pesticides and livestock breeding, according to a report published by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) on China's environmental situation.

The increasing industrial and mining wastes in the countryside are also threatening the safety of drinking water, the report said.