Recently, 12 water bodies in SIP, including Dushu Lake and Loujiang River made Suzhou’s latest list of “Happy Rivers and Lakes”. So far, 95 waters in SIP have been recognized as “Happy Rivers” or “Happy Lakes”, including four recognized by provincial-level authorities and 40 by municipal-level authorities. The “Central Happy Water Network for Leisure”, with Jinji Lake as the core and covering the entire Jinji Lake Sub-district, has taken shape.

Water quality data attests to the ecological progress. From January to October, the water quality at two drinking water sources and three provincial monitoring sections all reached the set standards. The water quality of Jinji and Dushu lakes maintained at the Class III level, the best level recorded for the same period in history. Among the 316 monitoring sites across 228 water bodies in SIP, 98.7% achieved Class III or better, setting a new record.

The achievements stem from SIP’s innovative policies and targeted actions for water environment improvement. For example, it has helped 186 enterprises improve rainwater and sewage pipelines, and established a comprehensive water quality analysis and assessment mechanism to accurately trace causes of fluctuations in water quality. And it has adopted an integrated monitoring and information sharing mechanism for blue-green algae control.

SIP has also made significant progress in improving air quality. To control dust, it has set up a routine management system covering hundreds of construction sites, and mapped dust sources with dynamically updated information for effective monitoring and response.

Furthermore, SIP’s effective measures for emission reduction at factories and green space management in residential quarters and parks have also contributed to its improving air quality.