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In the latest effort to clean up the environment, the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission said that country will close down all petrochemical enterprises and sewage outlets along the Yangtze River by end of June 2018.

Based on 2016 statistic, there are around 11,000 petrochemical enterprises were operating along the Yangtze River and 8,000 sewage outlets that discharge more than 100,000 cubic meters of waste water to the river, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.

All illegal petrochemical businesses operating within 1 kilometre radius will be shutdown by the given time frame while legally operating plants are encouraged to relocated. This might hit the country’s near term economic outcome, however would result in long term benefits, experts said.