CCTV News: The Ministry of Ecology and Environment held a regular press conference on April 23. According to the relevant person in charge, in the first quarter of this year, the national ambient air quality and surface water environmental quality continued to improve overall.

In terms of air quality, due to the favorable atmospheric diffusion conditions in the first quarter, the response to heavy pollution weather in various places was effective. The average proportion of days with good air quality in 339 prefecture-level and above cities across the country was 84.8%, an increase of 1.2 percentage points year-on-year; the average proportion of days with severe and above pollution was 1.8%, a decrease of 0.6 percentage points year-on-year. The national average concentration of PM2.5 was 41.3 micrograms per cubic meter, a year-on-year decrease of 4.8%. From the perspective of key areas, the average concentration of PM2.5 in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and surrounding areas, the Yangtze River Delta and the Fenwei Plain was 51.4 micrograms/cubic meter, 48.2 micrograms/cubic meter and 50.2 micrograms/cubic meter, respectively, both of which decreased year-on-year.

In terms of surface water environmental quality, among the 3,641 national surface water assessment sections, the proportion of sections with excellent water quality in Class I-III was 91.0%, an increase of 1.1 percentage points year-on-year; the proportion of sections with inferior Class V was 0.7%, an unchanged year-on-year. Among them, the proportion of sections with excellent water quality in key river basins such as the Yangtze River and the Yellow River was 92.1%, an increase of 0.6 percentage points year-on-year. Among the 196 key lakes (reservoirs), the number of lakes (reservoirs) with excellent water quality in Class I-III accounted for 82.1%, the same year-on-year; the number of lakes (reservoirs) with inferior water quality in Class V accounted for 3.6%, a decrease of 0.9 percentage points year-on-year.