Efforts to halt water pollution only partly successful

China's efforts in curtailing pollution of some major rivers and lakes have faced obstacles in meeting reduction targets, according to statistics from an annual report on water quality in 25 provinces and municipalities.

The State Council has released a five-year regional plan (2011-15) covering 25 provinces and municipalities to curb pollution of major waterways including the Huaihe River, upper reaches of the Yellow River and middle and downstream of the Yangtze River together with Chaohu and Dianchi lakes.

By 2014, regional governments had finished 55.3 percent of projects called for in the plan, according to an inspection report from the Ministry of Environmental Protection on Wednesday. It has left a heavy burden of pollution control in 2015, leaving only the one year to reach the goals,

Around 77 percent of river sections have met national standards, according to the report, which added that the section of the Huaihe River running through Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Henan and the Yangtze River in the upper reaches of Three Gorges Dam failed.

The ministry said the five districts and cities with the worst performance in improving water quality would suffer restrictions in passing the environmental impact assessment, the necessary approval for the construction of projects which would discharge water pollutants.

The five are Chaoyang district of Beijing, Jinghai county of Tianjin, Langfang city of Hebei province, Yichang city of Hubei province and Xinxiang city of Henan province.

They could resume their applications for assessment for such water-consuming and polluting projects after they have managed to reach the necessary requirements.