China's air and water quality 'still critical'

Air and water quality in China is still not satisfactory and the country faces some serious environmental challenges in the future, it has been claimed.

The country's environment protection minister Zhang Lijun warned that local authorities are not monitoring air quality well enough or encouraging businesses to cut their emissions and introduce stricter pollution-controlling methods.

Mr Lijun said that "the general situation of environmental pollution does not allow us to be optimistic," according to the Xinhua News Agency.

"The fundamental way to deal with this is to continue to press enterprises to reduce pollution emissions through technology and management," he continued.

Though the Chinese government clamped down on pollution by revamping its environment agency last year, a lot of the responsibility still lies with local councils, the official explained.

One of China's waterways, the Puji River, has been under surveillance by the Guangdong Provincial Environmental Protection Bureau of late, as pollutants from a nearby landfill site seeped into its waters.