In the 1920s, a large number of textile, flour, grain and oil processing, machinery, chemical industry and other industrial enterprises gathered along the Suzhou Creek, and many industrial workers lived along the coast, followed by a large number of industrial sewage and domestic sewage directly discharged into the river. After the founding of New China, according to the original industrial base, some factories are still located on both sides of Suzhou Creek. Although some control measures have been taken, the water quality is still deteriorating. By 1978, the urban section of Suzhou Creek has been black and smelly all the year round, with a lot of garbage floating on the water surface, almost zero dissolved oxygen in the water, extinct fish and shrimp, and the river has become a "dead" river with a reputation of "smelly".

During the period of 1998, the first phase of Suzhou Creek environmental comprehensive improvement project started, and the first goal was still pollution control, which extended industrial pollution control to industrial pollution and domestic pollution. In this project, 209.7 kilometers of pipelines were laid, 2 pumping stations 12 were built, 57 pumping station facilities were rebuilt, and 3 175 pollution sources were intercepted. On average, more than 300,000 cubic meters of sewage are discharged into Suzhou River every day. At the same time, 36 livestock and poultry farms were closed, 8 were managed, 9 sanitation terminals and 19 freight terminals on the east coast of changshou road Bridge were relocated, and a series of supporting facilities such as garbage transfer stations and excrement discharge stations were built, which changed the management mode and improved the "dirty, chaotic and poor" situation along the coast. After the first comprehensive improvement project was completed in 2002, the second comprehensive improvement project was started in the second year, and the main goal was still pollution control. After the completion of the second phase project in 2005, the water quality of Suzhou River was relatively stable.

In the third phase of this year's project, pollution control is still the primary goal. One is to continue to intercept pollution and control pollution, and the other is to dredge river sediment to further restore river ecology.