2025 State of Ecology & Environment – Freshwater
By CWR 22 June, 2026
At the end of the 14FYP & after 10 years of the Water Ten, we take a look at China's progress on improving water quality in 2025. Despite some ups & downs, all 14FYP freshwater targets were achieved
The 2025 State of Ecology and Environment (SOEE) Report is the fifth and last SOEE report published by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) during China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (14FYP). The 2025 SOEE Report also reflects the water quality progress as 2025 is the 10th year after China’s “Water Ten Plan” was issued. It is reported that China’s “national surface water quality continues to improve” while “groundwater quality remains stable.”
Key highlights of the 2025 SOEE Report…
- National surface water quality surpassed 90% for 2 years in a row: Grade I-III category improved from 90.4% in 2024 to 91.4% in 2025, continuing to exceed the 14FYP target of achieving 85% by 2025.
- Groundwater quality slightly dropped but still achieved the 2025 goal: Grade I-IV category dropped slightly from 77.9% in 2024 to 76.8% in 2025. Grade V category went up slightly from 22.1% in 2024 to 23.2% in 2025, but still met the 14FYP target of reducing the Grade V category to below 25% by 2025.
- All seven major river basins have met both Water Ten targets of Grade I-III >70% & Grade V+ <5%: Yangtze continues to meet its own higher target by reaching a majority Grade I-III category & maintain mainstream water quality at or above Grade II by 2025; Yellow also continues to exceed its own higher target of Grade I-III >81.9% by 2025.
- Three major river basins have maintained the elimination of Grade V+ category: they are the Pearl, Huai, and Hai. Yangtze dropped out of the list since its Grade V+ grew from 0% to 1%.
We deep dive into the performance of various water bodies in 2025 below…
| To better understand the terminology of water quality used by the report, please refer to the following list:
Grade I: suitable for source water and national natural reserve |
National surface water quality continues to improve
China’s national surface water quality continues to improve steadily. From 2024-2025, its share in the Grade I-III category improved from 90.4% to 91.4% – surpassing 90% for 2 consecutive years. Grade V category maintained 0.6%. Meanwhile, the 14FYP target for Grade I-III category of > 85% by 2025 was exceeded.
China’s Main River Basins show steady improvement – all seven major river basins continue to meet both Water Ten Targets
The overall surface water quality of China’s Main River Basins has continued to improve. The share of Grade I-III category improved from 92.4% in 2024 to 93.0% in 2025. Although Grade V+ category fell from 0.4% in 2023 to 0.3% in 2024, it then rebounded back to 0.4% in 2025.
In 2025, all seven major river basins have achieved both Water Ten targets as Grade I-III >70% and Grade V+ <5% – as shown in the chart to the right.
Apart from these targets, the Yangtze & Yellow continued to meet their own higher targets. The Yangtze’s target is reaching a majority Grade I-III by 2025 (achieved, 98.9% is Grade I-III now) and mainstream water quality maintained at or above Grade II (2025 is the 6th consecutive year to reach this). The Yellow also continued to exceed its own higher target of Grade I-III >81.9% by 2025.
In 2025, 3 out of 7 rivers maintained the elimination of their Grade V+ waters – they are the Pearl, Huai, and Hai. Yangtze dropped out of the list since its Grade V+ grew from 0% to 1%.
The Yellow River increased Grade I-III by 2.8 percentage point…
… & reduced Grade V+ by 0.7 percentage point
As shown in the table below, all rivers have improved their Grade I-III category in 2025 except for the Liao, which saw 0.4% degradation to Grade IV-V. In particular, the Yellow made substantive improvements of increasing Grade I-III by 2.8 percentage point & reducing Grade V+ by 0.7 percentage point.
For the Yangtze River, it’s always been the best-managed river among the seven. But in 2025, Grade V water appeared again, although it had been eliminated for 3 consecutive years. In the National Surface Water Environmental Quality Status in the First Quarter of 2026, we found that Grade V water in the Yangtze appeared in Ouchi River in Jingzhou, Hubei province.
Due to the straightening of the Jingjiang River bend and the upstream influence of the Three Gorges Reservoir, the water flow of this river has been continuously decreasing. Combined with the extensive surrounding farmland and the impact of agricultural wastewater, pollutant concentrations have become increasingly high. Jingzhou City has taken action already by increasing the monitoring frequency from once a month to once every three days. We expect to see Grade V eliminated in the Yangtze again next year.
The Yellow made the biggest improvement from 2024 to 2025, but if we look at the whole 14FYP, Songhua made the biggest progress by increasing Grade I-III from 61.1% to 77.6% during these five years.
Key Lakes & Reservoirs – overall quality improved
The overall water quality of China’s Key Lakes & Reservoirs has also improved compared to 2024. The share of Grade I-III category improved from 77.1% in 2024 to 78.5% in 2025 while Grade V+ fell from 4.3% to 3.3%.
Groundwater – quality slightly decreased
Groundwater – quality slightly decreasedIn 2025, the Grade I-IV and Grade V groundwaters were 76.8% and 23.2% respectively. Both categories worsened by 1.1 percentage points compared to 2024. Though this still meets the 14FYP target of reducing Grade V water to below 25%, we expect there to be stricter measures to control groundwater quality in the next 5 years.
The good news is that under strict groundwater use control, the use of groundwater and its share in total water use has gone down steadily since 2011. So at least China is relying less on groundwater.
Overall, in 2025, we saw a not-so-perfect ending of 14FYP, where all targets were met, but some of the indicators degraded slightly, as we have discussed above.
In addition, the Yangtze River has been under a ten-year fishing ban since 2021. After five years of strict enforcement, we are delighted to see that the number of native fish species monitored in the Yangtze River basin has reached 351, an increase of 43 species compared to before the ban.
The MEE published the Beautiful Rivers and Lakes: Protection and Construction Action Plan (2025-2027) in early 2025 to enhance the quality of over 2500 rivers and lakes. This was the priority for MEE in 2025 – by the end of the year, steady progress had been made as the construction rate of beautiful rivers and lakes had reached 20%.
Just last month (May 2026), CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued Evaluation Methods for the Effectiveness of Building a Beautiful China, requiring provincial governments to report annually on the implementation of tasks and the achievement of targets for building a beautiful China. The initial outcomes of these efforts will be seen in next year’s SOEE.
If you would like to refer to previous trends, please click the images below.
Further readings
- 2024 State of Ecology & Environment – Freshwater – With the 14FYP nearing completion, what progress has China made on freshwater quality? Check out our review on key targets and trends in China’s water pollution control
- 2023 State of Ecology & Environment Report Review – How has China’s water quality progressed in 2023? Check out our review for a blow-by-blow account of water quality movements by key rivers & reservoirs for 2023 as well as historic trends since the release of its 14FYP in 2021
- First-ever 14FYP for Water Security – 8 Key Thoughts – China’s first-ever 14FYP for Water Security signals that it is well ahead in water adaptation & the IPCC’s “climate resilient development”. CWR’s Tan & Low share more key thoughts
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