China Achieves ‘Excellent’ Water Quality in 90% of Rivers and Lakes, Now Looks to Improve Whole Ecosystems

China Achieves ‘Excellent’ Water Quality in 90% of Rivers and Lakes, Now Looks to Improve Whole Ecosystems

China Achieves ‘Excellent’ Water Quality in 90% of Rivers and Lakes, Now Looks to Improve Whole Ecosystems The Yulong River – credit, Qeqertaq, CC 3.0. BY-SA Having achieved incredible results in improving water quality across the nation, China is embarking on a ten-year project to ensure the ecosystem beyond the shoreline meets similar standards. The plan, unveiled recently by China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment aims to match improvements in water quality seen in 2,573 rivers and lakes across the country with improvements to the overall ecosystem in which the fresh water is found, including those which humans rely on, and the cultural artifacts located there as well. It could be said that the protagonist of China’s 4,000 year history isn’t the Chinese people themselves, but fresh water. From the moment that humans began cultivating rice in the central and northern Chinese plains, control and manipulation of water became the unifying feature of Chinese society, transcending social …