Shanghai?is well on its way toward fulfilling a three-year water-purifying plan that will produce cleaner rivers and lakes by the end of next year, officials from local water bureau said yesterday.

The authorities next year will complete renovation of Shanghai's 23,000 main lakes and rivers, according to Liu Xiaotao, deputy director of Shanghai Water Bureau.

"In the past two years, we have taken several steps to reduce pollution in 555 foul and black rivers totaling 660 kilometers to make them cleaner," he said.

"The major pollutants of these black rivers were industrial waste, which have been stopped through connecting factories' sewage directly with sewage plants instead of ordinary waterway," Liu said.

Since 2000, the city has established 50 sewage plants capable of processing 672 tons of water a day - 95.5 percent of the water Shanghai uses every day.

In addition, all 33,000 local small rivers, totaling 25,000 kilometers, have been covered in an anti-pollution drive started early this year.

"Songjiang District is the region with the most remarkable achievement," said Li Binghui, deputy director of Songjiang District Water Bureau.

A total of 332 water-related projects with over 80 billion yuan (US$11.7 billion), are to be spent on water purification and waterway improvement, said the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau.