SHANGHAI’S environment watchdog will launch a smart phone application early next year for residents to oversee the city government’s campaign to improve waterways, a senior official said yesterday.

A professional version of the app, named Shanghai Ground Water Quality, has already been issued to local officials, or “river chiefs” charged with cleaning up polluted waterways and overseeing long-term sustainability, said Zhang Quan, director of the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau.

“I can check the water quality of 259 river sections being monitored across the city on my mobile phone even though I am in Beijing now,” said Zhang, who is a legislator in the National People’s Congress and is in the capital for the current session.