Cities failing on pollution, says ministry
Print Edition
SEVERAL cities in northern China have not implemented effective smog control measures and have failed to crack down hard enough on polluting firms, Xinhua news agency said yesterday, citing the results of inspections by the environment ministry.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection sent eight inspection teams to smog-prone northern Chinese cities earlier this week, and found some were not doing enough to force polluters to toe the line, Xinhua said.
It named Qian’an in Hebei Province, saying the city’s emergency emission cutting measures were “unreasonable” and not strict enough on local enterprises. The ministry has ordered environmental officials in Hebei to conduct further investigations.
The ministry has been using the recent outbreaks of smog in northern China to test its rapid response systems ahead of the winter, when predominantly coal-fired urban heating systems are switched on and emissions surge.
Earlier this week, it warned that Beijing and surrounding regions needed to prepare for what could be a particularly hazardous winter, with “unfavorable” weather conditions set to aggravate seasonal smog build-ups.
Beijing and Hebei have already set up alert systems that limit traffic, suspend construction and force firms to cut production during heavy smog.
But the inspection teams sent to Beijing and Hebei in October found that many enterprises had exceeded emission limits and failed to follow regulations.
Enforcement has long been regarded as the weak link in China’s efforts to curb pollution, with monitoring still inadequate and fraud not uncommon.
Hebei said this week it would ensure high-emission industries would all be plugged into a real-time online monitoring system by the end of this year. It also promised to create “no-coal” zones.
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