<p>Some Chinese regions near key waterways the Yangtze and Yellow rivers are "seriously lagging" state water quality standards despite big improvements overall this year, the environment ministry said.</p>.<p>China divides its water resources into six grades, with the top three considered safe for human use, and the lowest, "below grade V", unfit even for industrial or irrigation purposes.</p>.<p>Some 75.4% of China's water was judged to be in the top three grades in the first 10 months of this year, up 2.3 percentage points from a year earlier, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said late on Wednesday.</p>.<p>Just 3.2% was found to be "below grade V", down 1.9 percentage points on the year.</p>.<p>However, "some regions were seriously lagging in their water environment targets", the ministry said.</p>.<p>Parts of the Yangtze river and Bohai Bay, near the industrial region of Tianjin, needed to work harder to eliminate water "below grade V", it added.</p>.<p>The Yellow river also required "urgent" pollution treatment work on its middle and lower reaches.</p>.<p>China's per capita water resources are around a quarter of the global average, and with demand still rising, it is trying to remediate contaminated water sources and improve efficiency.</p>.<p>It is in the middle of a wide-reaching programme to clean up the Yangtze, its biggest river, and put an end to major development along its banks.</p>
<p>Some Chinese regions near key waterways the Yangtze and Yellow rivers are "seriously lagging" state water quality standards despite big improvements overall this year, the environment ministry said.</p>.<p>China divides its water resources into six grades, with the top three considered safe for human use, and the lowest, "below grade V", unfit even for industrial or irrigation purposes.</p>.<p>Some 75.4% of China's water was judged to be in the top three grades in the first 10 months of this year, up 2.3 percentage points from a year earlier, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said late on Wednesday.</p>.<p>Just 3.2% was found to be "below grade V", down 1.9 percentage points on the year.</p>.<p>However, "some regions were seriously lagging in their water environment targets", the ministry said.</p>.<p>Parts of the Yangtze river and Bohai Bay, near the industrial region of Tianjin, needed to work harder to eliminate water "below grade V", it added.</p>.<p>The Yellow river also required "urgent" pollution treatment work on its middle and lower reaches.</p>.<p>China's per capita water resources are around a quarter of the global average, and with demand still rising, it is trying to remediate contaminated water sources and improve efficiency.</p>.<p>It is in the middle of a wide-reaching programme to clean up the Yangtze, its biggest river, and put an end to major development along its banks.</p>