Ministry of Ecology and Environment: In the first half of the year, the proportion of national surface water rated good or excellent was 87.4%

On July 30, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment announced the national surface water environmental quality data for the second quarter and the first half of 2026. The data show that in the second quarter, the proportion of national surface water sections with Class I–III water quality was 82.5%, up 2.3 percentage points year on year, while the proportion of sections rated below Class V was 1.1%, down 1.3 percentage points year on year. Looking at the first half of the year as a whole, the proportion of national surface water sections with Class I–III water quality reached 87.4%, up 3.0 percentage points year on year; the proportion of sections rated below Class V was 0.9%, down 1.2 percentage points year on year. The main pollutants exceeding standards were still concentrated in chemical oxygen demand, permanganate index, and total phosphorus. In key river basins, the proportion of Class I–III water quality in the first half of the year for the seven major river basins, including the Yangtze River, Yellow River, and Pearl River, as well as the rivers of Northwest China, Southwest China, and the ZhejiangFujian region, was 88.1%, up 3.0 percentage points year on year. Monitoring of key lakes and reservoirs also showed that most were in a mesotrophic or oligotrophic state, with water quality performing relatively well in places such as Lake Taihu, Baiyangdian, Erhai Lake, and the Danjiangkou Reservoir.