May 18- Zhao Hualin, head of the pollution prevention department under the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said at a news conference that a total of 22 indicators will be used to evaluate river quality during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) period.

According to Ling Jiang, deputy head of the department, additional indicators such as heavy metal to national standards may mean that the water quality of some rivers may be downgraded for a certain period of time, “but stricter evaluation will be good in the long term.”

Under the plan, 49.2 percent of the rivers and the lakes monitored by the central authorities should meet at least Grade III standards by the end of 2015. That will be an increase of 5 percentage points from 2010.

In addition, water of Grade V+ quality (essentially useless for agriculture and industry) should be reduced by 8 percentage points in five years from 25.8 percent in 2010.

An estimated 500 billion yuan ($79.1 billion) will be spent from 2011 to 2015 to ease the pollution in 10 major rivers and lakes monitored by the central government.

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