Shanghai will clean up the water in all of its downtown rivers by the end of this year, the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau announced Monday.

That goal is part of a three-year environment plan that is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.

Other goals include raising the amount of green coverage, namely grass, gardens and trees, to cover more than 37 percent of city land, and to ensure air quality is good at least 310 days a year, or 85 percent of the time. Another goal is to increase the rate of the environmentally friendly recycling of the household waste to 95 percent.

Water quality in 76 sections of rivers in downtown, 60 kilometers in length, will be improved this year, bureau officials said.

The rivers are mainly branches of important local waterways like Suzhou Creek, and many have seen garbage piled up on their banks for years.

Two-thirds of them are small and many have become blocked by urban construction or real estate development, resulting in dead water flow that doesn't allow the rivers to clean themselves naturally, said the Shanghai Water Authority.

To improve the water quality, more pipelines will be built to collect sewage and send it for treatment. Currently, sewage is directly discharged into many of the small rivers.

The rivers will also be dredged up to improve water flow, and trees will be planted along their banks. Biotechnology will be used to purify the water and mend the ecology, according to the authority.

Water samples will be taken each month to check the progress.

(eastday.com March 1, 2005)