Residents exercise by the Lihu Lake in Binhu district, Wuxi. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Wuxi's Binhu district in East China's Jiangsu province reported its recent progress in building a healthy district at a news conference on Sept 15.

According to local officials, Binhu has been striving to create a healthy environment and promote fitness among residents with a goal of building itself into a provincial health promotion district.

Since being designated as a unit to build the 2020-21 Jiangsu Provincial Health Promotion District by the Jiangsu Commission of Health last year, Binhu has invested 1 million yuan ($155,349) in health-related sectors such as health education, basic public health services and health facilities.

The local government's efforts have paid off as the healthy environment and healthy population indicators of Binhu have improved significantly and reached the required standards for provincial health promotion districts.

Official statistics showed that the proportion of days with good air quality in Binhu reached 80.6 percent and the passing rate of drinking water quality reached 100 percent.

The rate of harmless disposal of household waste stood at 100 percent, the rate of centralized disposal of rural domestic waste was 100 percent and the rate of centralized treatment of domestic sewage was 95 percent.

The per capita area of sports fields reached 5.80 square meters in Binhu and the level of health literacy of the population was 32.71 percent. The smoking rate among adults was less than 20 percent.

In addition, Binhu has a high COVID-19 vaccination rate. As of Sept 14, 86.69 percent of local residents had received their first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine.