On the afternoon of May 25, the Information Office of Anhui Provincial People's Government held a press conference to brief the public on the progress and achievements of building beautiful villages across the province. Reporters learned at the conference that in 2025, the province completed the construction of 200 high-quality demonstration villages for harmonious and beautiful countryside and 850 provincial-level central villages, achieving remarkable results in improving the rural living environment.

In August 2025, the Department of Ecology and Environment of Anhui Province, together with multiple departments, issued the Work Plan for Building Beautiful Villages in Anhui Province. It clarified 4 key tasks, 16 specific measures and 13 construction indicators, striving to build a new generation of beautiful villages featuring tidy and orderly villages, green and low-carbon agriculture, pleasant ecological living environment and harmonious coexistence between humanity and nature.

Since last year, Anhui has further advanced the initiative of "Leading by a thousand villages and upgrading ten thousand villages", and steadily carried out the three major campaigns targeting rural toilets, garbage and sewage treatment. By the end of 2025, a total of 4.65 million rural sanitary toilets had been renovated across the province, with the penetration rate reaching 91%. The collection, transportation and disposal system for rural domestic waste, namely "household centralized delivery, enterprise collection and transportation, and unified treatment at city and county levels", has been further improved, and the harmless treatment rate of rural domestic waste stood at 85%. The province has actively promoted the resource utilization model for rural domestic sewage treatment. A total of 53.8% of administrative villages have realized effective collection and disposal of domestic sewage, effectively solving prominent problems such as inadequate toilet facilities, random sewage discharge and garbage accumulation in rural areas.

In terms of comprehensive water ecological management, the three-year action plan for treating black and odorous water bodies in rural areas has been steadily implemented. Among the 5,692 identified rural black and odorous water bodies in the province, 5,396 have been renovated, and all the rest will be eliminated as scheduled by the end of this year. Ecological renovation has been launched for 133 rural rivers, lakes and reservoirs, and 119 ecologically clean small watersheds have been built. The soil and water conservation rate of the province hit 91.97%, presenting a beautiful rural landscape with clear water, green banks and fish swimming freely in shallow waters.

Anhui has adopted categorized management and control over polluted cultivated land. In 2025, relevant measures for safe utilization and strict control were fully implemented on 555,000 mu of cultivated land for safe use and 15,600 mu of cultivated land under strict control across the province, firmly safeguarding the bottom line of cultivated land safety. For the control of agricultural non-point source pollution, scientific fertilization has been promoted in 83 agricultural counties, cities and districts, covering nearly 96% of the total cultivated land. The province has strengthened training on rational pesticide use and popularized green prevention and control methods to cut down agricultural pollution emissions at the source.

On this basis, Anhui has fully tapped the value of rural ecological resources and vigorously developed green industries that boost rural incomes, such as eco-tourism, health and leisure services. A number of innovative models have been created, including the "Selenium Spring Plus" industry in Shitai County of Chizhou and the "Forest Carbon Ticket plus Zero-carbon Express" model in Hefei, achieving mutually beneficial progress between ecological protection and economic development. The operation rights of soil and water conservation ecological products of 5 ecologically clean small watersheds in Hefei, Wuhu, Anqing, Huangshan and other regions have been traded, with a total contracted value of 64.8 million yuan. All proceeds are used for soil erosion control and rural industrial development. The province has also revitalized idle rural water bodies through transfer, subscription and cooperative operation, turning ecological resources into sustainable economic resources for raising rural incomes and integrating ecological benefits with economic benefits.