Fewer good days as air pollution gets worse
Print Edition
AIR quality in China got worse in the first half of 2017, with 338 cities, including Beijing, reporting fewer clean air days on average due to pollution in January and February, an official at the Ministry of Environmental Protection said yesterday.
Between April and June, air quality improved as the government stepped up pollution inspections, Liu Youbin, of the ministry’s publicity and communications department, told a media briefing in the capital.
Air pollution often gets worse during the winter months due to a rise in heating demand by residents dependent on coal-fired power stations for power.
Air quality in China’s largest cities on average deteriorated in the first six months, the ministry said, with 74.1 percent of all days during the period experiencing clean air, down 2.6 percentage points from a year earlier.
Levels of PM2.5 — dangerous tiny pollutants in the air — averaged 49 micrograms per cubic meter during the period, unchanged from a year earlier.
In Beijing, 55.3 percent of the January-June period were good days, down 5.8 percentage points.
Concentrations of PM2.5 in the capital rose 3.1 percent to 66 micrograms per cubic meter. Beijing has set a target of 60 micrograms for the whole year.
Of the country’s 74 major cities, Haikou in south China’s Hainan Province had the best air quality while Handan in north China’s Hebei Province was the most polluted.
The heavily industrialized province is one of China’s most polluted regions and estimated to be the source of around a third of the particulate matter drifting over Beijing.
The worsened air quality came despite the government’s strengthened oversight of environmental violations.
China investigated and dealt with 17,169 violations of environmental protection laws and regulations in the first six months of the year.
Over 610 million yuan (US$90 million) in fines were issued in 503 cases where violators must pay daily fines until they address their wrongdoings, up 131 percent and 64 percent year on year respectively.
Premier Li Keqiang pledged cleaner air during his annual press conference in March. “Blue skies should no longer be a luxury,” he said, “nor will they be.”
Last month, China appointed a new environment minister who promised a “protracted battle” to clean up the nation’s air, water and soil.
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