China's pollution at 'acceptable' standard

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BEIJING, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Pollution levels improved in many Chinese cities last year with air and water quality standards deemed acceptable in more of them, a government survey said.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection said a survey of 655 cities showed fair or good levels of air quality 66.7 percent of the time, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported Monday.

The news agency also said the ministry's survey showed water quality in 89 percent of areas surveys reached "acceptable" standards, up 4.44 percentage points. The survey cited 63 percent of domestic sewage was properly disposed of, up 8.03 percentage points over last year.

The survey noted about 77.26 percent of the urban Chinese population said they were satisfied with the environmental protection work in their city, Xinhua said.

There was no methodology mentioned.