Huge environment overhaul launches today
Print Edition
China will start a massive environmental overhaul today to ensure that air pollution in key regions will be effectively curbed, said sources with the Ministry of Ecology and Environment on Saturday.
The inspection is expected to last until April 28, 2019, during which approximately 18,000 environmental supervisors will be dispatched to discover environmental protection problems in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the surrounding areas, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Fenhe and Weihe river plains.
Twenty-eight cities will be targeted, including 11 in the provinces of Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan in the plains of Fenhe and Weihe rivers, as well as Shanghai, and the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui in the Yangtze River Delta.
Although air quality in these areas has kept improving on the whole, pollution remains serious in individual regions, the sources said.
The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is the worst, while some provinces like Henan and Shandong share days with good air quality of below 60 percent annually.
In the Fenhe and Weihe river plains, air pollution has worsened in recent years, the sources said.
The supervisors will be selected from local environment protection departments and the ministry to uncover structural problems in industrial development, energy use, transport and land use that are detrimental to air pollution control. The inspections will revolve around prominent public complaints, such as emergency responses to cases of heavy pollution, crop straw burning and coal-fired boilers.
Cities failing in their responsibilities will be questioned. When necessary, inspection teams at the central level will be sent to supervise local governments, according to the sources.
In a mobilization meeting held on Friday, Minister Li Ganjie said the move was to implement the requirements of the central government to fight a good battle against pollution and boost ecological development.
Blue sky
The top priority is winning the battle against air pollution to return the blue sky to the people, while a three-year action plan against air pollution must be released as quickly as possible, said Li.
Efforts must be made to curb PM 2.5, a key indicator of air pollution, while iron and steel, thermal power, building materials, bulk coal, diesel-powered trucks will be put under strict scrutiny.
Li said the inspection is not “a movement” or “a gust of wind,” but a long-term mechanism aiming for accurate pollution control, with a fundamental goal to help local governments to solve their problems and improve environmental quality.
“The inspection is an opportunity for local authorities to tackle their prominent problems,” he said.
To prevent persistent environmental violations, the ministry has got tougher with environmental supervision. The ministry has previously summoned senior officials of Shizhu in Chongqing, Yulin in Guangxi and Yichun in Jiangxi, and urged them to seriously implement the rectification requirements of the central inspection teams.
Perfunctory responses will not be tolerated, the ministry warned.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
