China will appoint local government heads as river chiefs across the nation to clean up and protect its water resources. Government officials will be hired as river chiefs at provincial, city, county and township levels.

For large rivers and lakes that span across regions, different river chiefs will be responsible for different parts of the bodies of water. They will also be expected to cooperate in terms of management.

Responsibilities of those appointed include water resource protection, pollution prevention and control, and ecological restoration.

The country first started appointing local government officials as river chiefs in 2007, to address issues of pollution in Jiangsu Province's Taihu Lake.

The practice was later adopted in several other regions rich in water resources. The central government expects to turn such practice into a nationwide mechanism by the end of 2018.