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Revised law to be even tougher on air polluters
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PEOPLE and companies found guilty of polluting the city’s air will face stiff new penalties under revised legislation set to come into force this year, lawmakers said yesterday.
“The city’s air protection standard has been quite strict but we want it even stricter to deter violators,” Zhang Quan, director of the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau and a national legislator, told Shanghai Daily.
Zhang made the statement yesterday as 59 of the city’s legislators arrived in Beijing for the annual National People’s Congress, which starts on Wednesday.
Lawmakers have had their final discussions on the new Shanghai Air Pollution Protection Law, which will be issued within the year, he said.
Under city law, violators will face harsher punishments than under national law, and there will be no upper limits on the penalties in some cases, the official said.
Criminal charges will be applied if necessary, he said.
In preparation for the revised legislation, local government has developed a new color-coded air pollution alarm system.
The warnings will be indicated by the colors of blue, yellow, orange and red, officials said.
On days with the worst air quality, work at factories discharging pollutants will be suspended, construction sites will be told to cease operating, and earth-moving vehicles will be banned from the roads.
In all cases, the parties involved will be informed of the suspension orders.
Separately, Jin Donghan, an NPC deputy from Shanghai and member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said the city government must have stricter standards to prevent air pollution by ships and boats, an area which has long been neglected.
Many channels cut through populated areas, and in those places, emissions from ships have been a major contributor to air pollution, Jin said.
Special “Emission Control Areas” should be established along key waterways to help tackle the problem, he said.
Shanghai ranked 48th of 74 cities that adopted a new air quality system last year. Its PM2.5 density was twice the national standard, according to a Greenpeace survey.
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