Central inspectors started the month-long high-level environmental protection inspection in Shanghai as well as Guangdong and Shaanxi provinces on Monday, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said.

The inspectors will focus on reviewing the performance of the leadership in Shanghai who are in charge of implementing the environmental protection measures and dealing with pollution, said Zhu Zhixin, head of the inspection team on Monday.

They will also monitor the treatment in some regions where deterioration has been observed and major cases involving pollution, Zhu said.

In October, Shanghai had good air quality everyday but the city faces problems in water quality, with 14 rivers being severely polluted, according to the information from the municipality's environmental protection bureau.

The central inspectors will do the same reviews and inspections in Guangdong and Shaanxi provinces, the ministry's statement said.

In addition to the three areas, Hubei and Chongqing also have started the top-level inspection, and Gansu and Beijing will start soon as well, the ministry said.

The seven provincial-level regions have been the second set of inspections since the initiative was launched in January, following the pilot project in Hebei and the first set of inspections in eight provincial level regions.

The first round of inspections were in Heilongjiang, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Henan and Yunnan provinces, and the Inner Mongolia, Guangxi Zhuang and Ningxia Hui autonomous regions.

The central inspectors will visit all the provincial level regions by the end of 2017, strengthening the supervision of decision-makers, the ministry said.