57% of groundwater poor: MEP

A new report released by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) on Tuesday has highlighted that in 2012 over half of the nation's groundwater resources was polluted.

The report on China's environmental condition in 2012 reveals that the groundwater quality in 57 percent of 198 monitoring sites in 4,929 cities in China was measured as poor or very poor.

Meanwhile, five of the 10 largest river basins were measured as polluted, with 25 percent of the 60 lakes tested found to be eutrophicated or severely affected by algae.

The latest findings echoed the results of a previous report by the Ministry of Land and Resources in April which stated that 55 percent of China's groundwater is of poor quality for the third year running.

"The poor quality will bring huge danger to people's health, as over 50 percent of the population uses groundwater as the source of drinking water; some even drink it directly," Zhao Zhangyuan, a researcher with the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, told the Global Times.

Zhao said that the water quality problem is worsening, especially in regard to groundwater because of a lack of governmental supervision, adding that officials should think more about supervising pollution discharge in a bid to prevent the contamination spreading. 

On Monday, the ministry issued a notice to beef up their efforts in preventing the water and air pollution by giving more severe punishments to polluters. It pointed out that the environment conditions in rural areas have deteriorated due to industrialization and agricultural modernization. Groundwater and drinking water pollution is serious in some areas.

Zhang Yuanxun, a professor of resources and environment at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the Global Times that industrial effluent, inappropriate waste disposal and overuse of agricultural chemicals are to blame.

"These pollutants will damage the quality of drinking water and the soil, and will threaten the safety of crop production, which can even influence the health of people living in cities," Zhang said, adding that it is almost impossible to restore the environment, as the solutions are incredibly costly.

The results of the air quality condition in the MEP's report also attracted public attention, due to the frequent smog experienced in most parts of the country earlier this year.

The report stated that ammonium nitrate and nitrogen oxide emissions, which can lead to haze, decreased 2.62 percent and 2.77 percent, respectively.

It indicated that the overall air quality in China's cities in 2012 remained roughly stable, it stated. However, only 40.9 percent of the 74 cities where the air quality is monitored according to the latest guidelines meet the national standards.

Zhang said that the latest standard, which was released in 2012, is more stringent.