BEIJING, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- China's air and water quality continued to improve in the first seven months of 2026, as the country strengthened efforts to curb air pollution and protect water resources, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said on Thursday.
The average density of PM2.5, a key indicator measuring air pollution, dropped by 1.8 micrograms per cubic meter in the first seven months of the year compared with the same period last year, a decrease of 6.2 percent, Huang Runqiu, China's ecology and environment minister, told a press conference.
In the same period, the proportion of days with good air quality rose by 3.9 percentage points year on year.
The ministry also revealed that during this period, 86.5 percent of the surface-water sections and sites monitored by the country were graded Class I to III, indicating good quality, up 2.4 percentage points from the same period last year.
China classifies surface water quality into five grades, with Class I being the best quality.
The country recently issued the 15th Five-Year Plan for Building a Beautiful China, which sets higher standards for controlling air and water pollution.
The plan aims to cut average PM2.5 concentration nationwide to below 27 micrograms per cubic meter by 2030, a 10 percent reduction from the baseline of 30 micrograms per cubic meter set for the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030).
It also calls for extending remediation efforts to address "black and odorous" water bodies in county-level cities and rural areas, while raising the target for the proportion of waters rated as "favorable-quality" to 85 percent.
The new "favorable-quality" indicator differs from the previous metric of "surface water meeting or exceeding Grade III in the country's five-tier water quality system" by adding ecological criteria on top of water quality standards.
During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China will also upgrade its digital and intelligent technologies to better protect air and water quality.
The country will scale up the application of artificial intelligence forecasting models and upgrade its air quality prediction platforms. By 2030, the accuracy rate of 72-hour forecasts for PM2.5 exceedance days nationwide will be raised to above 80 percent.
On the water front, China will build a new batch of automatic sampling stations and deploy a fleet of unmanned surface vessels for marine monitoring, shifting away from the current model that relies primarily on manual sampling. ■
