Reduction in water pollution on target

China is on track to exceed its 2014 target for cutting water pollution, the government announced on Wednesday, amid reports that it plans a $326 billion action plan to clean up its rivers and lakes.

A lack of environmental oversight during decades of economic growth has caused a dire water crisis in China, as toxic waste from factories has polluted 70 percent of rivers and lakes and over half of the groundwater.

But in the first six months of this year, emissions of ammonia nitrogen and chemical oxygen demand (a measure of organic pollutants in water) fell by 2.7 and 2.3 percent, the Ministry of Environmental Protection announced on Wednesday.