Maoming, Guangdong province saw significant progress in its ecological environment protection efforts as its air quality and surface water quality improved in 2019, according to news released by the city's bureau of ecology and environment on May 21.

The city's composite index of ambient air quality in 2019 was 3.09, ranking fourth among all the cities in the province, while that from January to April in 2020 was 2.61, ranking third in the province.

The number of days with excellent or good air quality in the city's downtown areas in 2019 accounted for 92.6 percent of the whole year, while the rate of good air quality reached 99.2 percent from January to April.

In 2019, the share of surface water at the city's seven monitoring points that had a good quality rating at grade III or above was 85.7 percent.

To date, nearly 76.93 percent of the city's about 4,400 mu (293.33 hectares) polluted farmlands have been safely utilized.

Maoming has also completed the task assigned by the province to reduce emissions of major heavy metals by 10 percent compared with that at the end of the 12th Five-year Plan (2011-2015) by 2019.