The water quality of the rivers and lakes in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region remained at level II (fairly good) or above in 2002, according to the "Tibet 2002 Environmental Status Communique" issued Thursday by the local Bureau of Environmental Protection.

The communique shows that the water quality of the respective mainstreams of the Yarlung Zangbo, the Jinsha, the Nujiang and theLancang Rivers, which all flow through Tibet, was evaluated as level II (fairly good). In addition, the more than 1,500 lakes within Tibet all contained water as clean as the previous year.

According to the communique, Tibet discharged 10.6 million tons of industrial waste in 2002, down 4.55 percent from the previous year.

The communique says Tibet also has abundant and clean underground water resources.

(People's Daily June 7, 2003)