The environmental quality in the province of Sichuan improved last year, following the provincial government's measures relating to emissions, pollution ecological construction and environmental supervision, according to the Environmental Protection Bureau of Sichuan.

Yang Xuehong, vice director of the bureau, also said at a news conference on May 31 that the province's 24 key environmentally controlled cities had 354 days of good air quality on average last year. Twenty-two of these cities reached the national secondary standard in air quality, while two cities - Panzhihua and Chengdu - reported excessive sulfur dioxide and inhalable particles, respectively.

Yang also said that acid rain pollution in the province was reduced last year as the amount of acid rain made up 33.2 percent of the total rain volume. Luzhou city remained the most seriously polluted area in Sichuan, according to the amount of acid rain.

The five major river systems - Yangtze (Sichuan section), Jinsha, Minjiang, Tuojiang and Jialingjiang were in general mildly contaminated, but the Minjiang andTuojiang river systems and some branches of the Jialingjiang River were considered to be polluted.

The Yangtze (Sichuan section), Jinsha, Minjiang and Jialingjiang rivers were at medium nutrient level, while the Tuojiang River was at light eutrophication level.

Yang added that the Sichuan Provincial Environmental Protection Bureau is continuing to improve the environment quality this year.

The pollution caused by burning straw, which has always been a problem and seriously affects the air quality, has been well addressed this year, and no cases of large-scale burning were noted in the key areas of the Chengdu Plain.

The bureau and its subordinate departments pushed the comprehensive utilization of straw, and successfully turned the straw into useful resources rather than a burden that farmers want to get rid of.

The bureau is also determined to deal with the haze pollution this year, as Sichuan endured three periods of serious haze pollution last year, affecting 17 cities in the province.