SHANGHAI, March 22 (Xinhua) -- The treatment rate of household wastewater in rural areas of Shanghai has reached 75 percent, thanks to a series of measures the city has adopted in recent years.

According to the municipal water authority, Shanghai initiated a pilot program in 2007 to treat rural household sewage. As of the end of 2018, it had put into place facilities for treating sewage from 749,000 rural households.

In 2018 alone, 189,000 rural homes were connected to the sewage collection and treatment system.

The city has also strengthened supervision over the quality of water generated by treatment facilities in rural areas.

Since the second half of last year, under a "river chief" mechanism, Shanghai carried out an examination of household sewage treatment in its suburban districts. The district governments were informed of the problems found and urged to solve them within a deadline.