China's ecological and environmental quality continued to improve in the first half of the year, according to a report released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment on July 9.
In the first half of this year, China's air quality improved on the whole. The proportion of good days in cities at prefecture-level and above reached 84.6%, up 0.3 percentage points year on year; PM2.5 concentration was 32 micrograms per cubic meter, down 5.9 percent year on year. The proportion of good days in The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and its surrounding areas increased by 1.3 percentage points year on year, and PM2.5 concentration decreased by 4.1 percent year on year. However, O3 concentration in cities at prefecture-level and above was 144 μ g/m3, up 4.3% year on year. The proportion of good days in the Yangtze River Delta and fenhe River Plain decreased by 5.4 percentage points and 5.1 percentage points, respectively, and PM2.5 concentration increased by 2.9 percent and 4.3 percent, respectively.
In terms of water ecological environment, the quality of surface water continued to improve in the first half of this year. The section proportion of surface water ⅰ - ⅲ was 85.7%, 4.0 percentage points higher than last year. The proportion of sections with inferior ⅴ quality was 1.1%, down 0.8 percentage points year-on-year. The section proportion of class ⅰ - ⅲ water in key basins was 87.3%, 3.8 percentage points higher than last year. The proportion of sections with inferior ⅴ quality was 0.8%, down 1.0 percentage points year-on-year. In the Yangtze River basin and the Yellow River basin, the sectional proportions of class ⅰ - ⅲ water quality were 97.0% and 82.4% respectively, up 2.0 percentage points and 5.8 percentage points year-on-year respectively. In the Yangtze River Basin, there was no category V water quality of inferior quality, down 0.4 percentage points year-on-year, while in the Yellow River Basin, there was category V water quality of inferior quality, down 2.3 percentage points year-on-year, down 3.4 percent. In the key lakes (reservoirs), the proportion of ⅰ - ⅲ lake reservoirs was 76.2%, up 3.3 percentage points compared with last year. The proportion of inferior ⅴ lake reservoir was 5.2%, down 0.5 percentage points year-on-year.
In the first half of this year, the quality of soil, groundwater, natural ecology and acoustic environment remained stable on the whole. Emergency environmental incidents have been properly handled; Nuclear and radiation safety has been effectively guaranteed.