Beijing began publishing water quality information on the website of Beijing Water Works Group on Tuesday following media reports questioning the city's tap-water quality.

The information will be published at least every quarter, said Hu Bo, a section chief of the Beijing Water Authority.

"There were nearly 300 sample sites in the city and each quarter we take 42 indicators. It's costly," Hu added.

The website (www.bjwatergroup.com.cn/348/index.htm) has published water information for the last quarter of 2012. For example, the index of E. coli is 0-88, while the standard limit is 100.

The data will be published before the middle of the first month of the next quarter. Before Jan 15 of each year, data for all 106 indicators of water quality from the year before will be published.

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