Anti-pollution effort pays off along Yangtze

Economic belt benefits from better coordination of ministries, provinces

Zhang Liangcai used to be a fisherman on Taihu Lake in the 1990s, but now he works as a lake cleaner since the city government of Wuxi, Jiangsu province, started to restore the lake's ecology in 2002.

The environmental campaign accelerated in response to a water crisis in Wuxi caused by pollution in 2007, and a "river chiefs" system was established in which government officials are assigned to protect waterways in their area.