An aerial view of the sparkling Qianyuan River in Baipu town, Rugao [Photo/WeChat account: rugaofabu]

The county-level city of Rugao in Nantong has really cleaned up its act when it comes to water, according to a recent report.

The report ranked Rugao fifth among 63 counties, county-level cities and districts in Jiangsu province in terms of surface water quality in the first half of the year -- four places up compared with the 2019 rankings. 

Local officials said that over the past few years, Rugao has been working hard to improve its water environment by promoting sewage treatment, dredging riverbeds and cracking down on polluting companies.

To date, the city has shut down 202 farms in forbidden areas and 24 chemical companies and acted against 455 companies engaged in wrongdoing.

The local government also built 72 new sewage treatment facilities in villages and appointed 1,842 river chiefs, who have been tasked with carrying out river patrols and managing supervision, water resources protection and pollution prevention and control measures.

Officials said a total of 18 town-level waterways and 176 village-level waterways have been dredged, with 12 water purifying system installed.

"The Longyou River was black and smelled rank with the banks that were overgrown with weeds," said Xia Gaohai, a local resident in his 80s. "Now the river has been restored to the condition it used to be in my childhood, thanks to the government's management."

Officials said another 20 million yuan ($2.9 million) will be spent to improve the environment in six town-level rivers and 225 village-level rivers this year.