Tests find water quality improves across nation

China met its targets for improving water quality in rivers and lakes last year despite figures showing conditions worsened in some regions, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said on Monday.

Of the 1,940 stations monitoring surface water quality nationwide, just over two-thirds - 67.8 percent - reported quality within the top three levels of the nation's six-tier system in 2016, Zhang Bo, the ministry's director of water quality management, said at a news conference.

This represents an increase of 1.8 percentage points year-on-year, according to the ministry.