The severe reality of pollution prevention and control in the Pearl River-West River Economic Belt is that industrial pollution discharge is large and structural pollution is prominent. Based on 83 county level administrative units of the Pearl River-West River Economic Belt，chemical oxygen demand（COD），ammonia nitrogen，sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides were picked to indicate water and air pollution（WAPI）. Based on the measure of WAPI，spatial error model was used to quantitatively decompose effect of the driving factors and the spatial effect. It provides scientific reference for the establishment of environmental regulation oriented to pollution source control. The results show that：（1）the water and air environmental pollution index in the Pearl River-West River Economic Belt decreased by 30.6% from 2012 to 2016，and the overall improvement of WAPI was obvious. At the same time，the spatial pattern of water and air pollution was stable，and increased from upstream to downstream at the watershed scale. At the county scale，there was a core-edge structure surrounding the high-pollution counties. （2）the middle and lower reaches of the Pearl River-West River Economic Belt was the key to prevent and control pollution. Among them，the downstream was particularly polluted，it is urgent to consider the environmental carrying capacity and pollution degree of development and protection，accelerate the Pearl River Delta basin to transform to ecological civilization. （3）the local pollution degree in the Pearl River-West River Economic Belt was obviously affected by the surrounding counties. The level of industrialization was the main driving factor，the implementation of industrial transformation and upgrading is urgent. In the future，more attention should be paid to the consideration of emission reduction targets and environmental benefits in capacity and production technology，and implement systematic and source comprehensive treatment in industrial structure and production to alleviate the situation of water and gas environmental pollution. （4）The degree of local pollution was obviously affected by the surrounding counties. In view of the spatial spillover effect of pollution，deep-level environmental regulations such as environmental access，pollution payment and cross-border early warning should be established in coordination，and the value of environmental capacity should be promoted across regions，and the sewage charging system based on concentration and total amount should be promoted. Achieve social and economic development while minimizing the degree of water and gas environmental pollution.