Country to build wells to monitor groundwater

China plans to build more than 10,000 underground water monitoring wells nationwide within the coming three years to detect groundwater pollution in a timely manner, the country's land watchdog said on Tuesday.

"The nationwide groundwater monitoring system will provide real-time information including the groundwater level and quality to governments and the public," said Zhang Zuochen, vice-president of the China Geological Environmental Monitoring Institute.

He said in addition to building more groundwater monitoring wells, the Ministry of Land and Resources also finished a draft amendment of the country's groundwater standards, which will be sent to the State Council.

"With increasing human activities and rapid economic development, the new standards will be much stricter with more factors to be tested before the groundwater is supplied for residential use," Zhang said.

Groundwater pollution has been severe in China with the quality of about 60 percent of the country's groundwater tested last year judged only "relative" or "very poor", according to the Ministry of Land and Resources.