People-power plan to make China's lakes superior

Local authorities are encouraging greater public participation and private-public partnerships in efforts to control water pollution. Xu Wei reports from Wuhan and Xi'an.

With 166 lakes dotted throughout the urban and suburban areas of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, the local authorities face an uphill struggle to protect them from pollution and illegal land reclamation. In recent decades, large real estate developments have destroyed many of the city's lakes, especially in the urban area, where the number fell to 28 in 2012 from 127 in the 1950s.

In addition to the lost lakes, water pollution has become an equally troubling problem. In its 2014 yearly report, published in March, the Wuhan Environmental Protection Bureau said that just three of the 87 monitored lakes across the city met the national quality standard for drinking water, while only six were safe to swim in, and the water quality had fallen in 16 others.