China will endeavor to remediate damaged ecological systems in major river basins and restore aquatic animals and plants there during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), a senior environmental official said.

Based on the improved environment, China will attach more importance to the protection and restoration of water ecology as it begins to draft the plan on ecological and environmental protection in the coming five years, said Zhai Qing, vice-minister of ecology and environment, at a national conference on Monday.

He said one of the priorities from 2021 to 2025 is to restore water in dried-up water bodies by enhancing the utilization of reclaimed water and promoting water conservation in regions with high water consumption.

The country will also set up buffer zones to facilitate the protection of rivers and lakes while making efforts to transform life and production styles that invade the ecological systems of water bodies, he continued.

"We hope we could gradually restore aquatic animals and plants in rivers and lakes with damaged water ecological systems," he noted.

Zhai also stressed that the plan will be drafted in a people-centered manner.

The environment of water bodies that are near the public will be further improved to increasingly meet people's scenic, entertainment and sports demands.

"If the water quality of rivers and lakes near people improves and the environment there becomes more beautiful, the public could personally see and feel the changes and enjoy an increasing sense of gain and happiness. This is our aim in drafting the plan," he said.

The ministry will dispatch work teams to each provincial level region to help local governments to draf

t their plans on water-related ecological and environmental protections in the coming five years, Zhai said.

"These teams will conduct research with prefecture-level governments and work on the plans with them until they are completed," he said.

He said the country will increase the number of national monitoring stations for surface water from the current 1,940 to 3,646 in its efforts to enhance water pollution management.

The country saw great improvement in the quality of surface water in 2019.

Water with quality above Grade III, the third-highest of the country's five-tier surface water quality system, rose by 3.9 percentage points.

The Yangtze River, the country's longest watercourse, experienced even greater improvement in water quality, with that above Grade III up by 4.2 percentage points.