Half of China's top 10 rivers polluted: report

The water in half of China's top 10 river systems is polluted, and about 60 percent of the nation's underground water is of poor quality, a report has revealed.

Among the 10 rivers and their tributaries, the Yellow, Huaihe, Haihe, Liaohe and Songhuajiang rivers were polluted, with north China's Haihe the worst affected, reaching moderately polluted levels, Xinhua news agency said yesterday, citing the government's 2013 China Environmental Situation Report.

About 9 percent of the water in these river systems was rated class V, the worst level.

The 1,050-kilometer Haihe flows through Tianjian and neighboring areas before emptying into the Bohai Bay.

More than 39 percent of the Haihe system was class V. All its tributaries had reached the severely polluted level, according to the report.

"Industries featuring high energy consumption and high pollution such as steel, coal, chemical industry, construction material and power are being developed intensively along the Haihe basin, which has already suffered from very severe water environment, and local authorities and companies turned a blind eye to the environment," said Wang Jinnan, a deputy director with the Ministry of Environmental Protection's environmental planning department.

Water in the Yangtze, China's longest river which flows into the sea near Shanghai, and in the Pearl River Delta, was of relatively good quality, according to the report.