Lai Chongbiao is the river chief of Fukou River in Sha county, which is renowned for local snacks, in Southeast Chinas' Fujian province.

The 42-year-old man's daily work is to walk more than 15 kilometers along the river and check its water quality.

In Fujian there are more than 132,000 river chiefs like Lai, vital parts of the province's efforts to keep the rivers clean and prevent pollution caused by household garbage and illegal industrial discharge.

In the past six months, their work has greatly improved the water quality of the 60 rivers in Sha county.

Sha county is just a shining example in Fujian's great enevironmental protection's achiveement over the past five years.

The province has long been a leader on environmental policy in China. The idea of building an "ecological province" was first proposed in 2000, and 14 years later Fujian was named China's first demonstration zone for ecological protection.

In 2016, Fujian also became the nation's experimental area for ecological protection.

The faith placed in Fujian by China's central government has been amply repaid, as the province has continued to set records for environmental quality over the last half-decade.

In the region's 12 main rivers, more than 96 percent of the water is now classified as Grade 3 or above on China's water quality index, meaning that the water is safe for use as drinking water. This is 25 percentage points higher than the national average.

Lai Chongbiao, a river chief in Sha county, points at a building of a former calcium carbonate factory whose sewage used to pollute the Fukou River. Now the factory has been closed and turned into farmlands. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]