Monitoring stations freed of interference

China plans to make environmental monitoring stations independent to improve monitoring data, a move that facilitates policymakers' decisions and helps to efficiently reduce pollution, experts said on Monday.

All major monitoring stations for air, water, soil and offshore areas will be under the management of the central government, which will cut inference from local governments on data and assessments.

"Environmental monitoring is an important basis for scientific environmental management and decisions, and is important for assessing local governments' environmental protection," the ministry said in a statement on Monday.

"To guarantee that monitoring data is accurate and authentic is the bottom line of environmental monitoring, which cannot be violated by any individual or organization," Environment Minister Chen Jining said.

The China National Environmental Monitoring Center directly manages all 1,436 major air-quality monitoring stations in 338 major cities, which are usually operated by local environmental authorities, Fu Deqian, deputy head of the center, said on Monday.

China is confronted with many problems, including regulations not being implemented and a lack of technical standards for monitoring, the ministry said.

By 2020, China will build comprehensive systems to guarantee the quality of monitoring networks on air, water and soil, making them accurate and authentic.

He Kebin, head of the School of Environment at Tsinghua University said the plans are timely and necessary to help curb air pollution on Monday.

"Accurate monitoring data could help researchers to proof their models in forecasting and reducing air pollution, a key link in improving air quality," said He, adding that monitoring services need technical standards.

In addition, the solution to reducing smog and excessive ground-level ozone concentrations also rely on accurate monitoring data, which could help researchers analyze sources of pollution, said Zhang Yuanhang, a professor at Peking University's College of Environmental Science and Engineering.