Tianjin finds new ways to fight heavy dust pollution
Print Edition
ONE of China’s smoggiest cities, Tianjin, is engaged in a painstaking battle against dust, the leading contributor to the city's PM2.5 concentration.
The city's construction sites covered a total area of 212 square kilometers in 2014, almost equal to the size of Shijiazhuang, capital city of nearby Hebei Province in north China, officials with Tianjin Environmental Protection Bureau said.
Tianjin, about 100 kilometers from Beijing, is prone to clouds of construction dust. An analysis conducted by the bureau last year found about 30 percent of the city’s PM2.5 (airborne particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter) pollution was from dust, followed by coal and motor vehicle exhaust, which accounted for 27 and 20 percent, respectively.
In spring, when the weather is drier and construction sites are busier, dust pollution can account for 46 percent of the city’s PM2.5 concentration, according to the bureau.
He Jianqiang, deputy head of the atmosphere center under the bureau, said the total area of Tianjin’s construction sites in 2014 was about two times larger than in 2010, and some sites are still without adequate dust control measures.
As part of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integrated development plan and a test field of China’s pilot free trade zone, Tianjin has been witnessing rapid expansion in recent years.
Shi Hanghua, official with the city’s construction projects quality and safety supervision department, said there are currently more than 1,000 polluting construction sites in the city. Some operations, such as dregs transportation, are not up to environmental protection standards. The sites are also scattered, posing a bigger challenge to the understaffed supervision department.
Recognizing the severity of dust pollution, Tianjin’s municipal legislature passed an air pollution control law in early 2015, which defines the responsibilities of various authorities. The authorities then made their own law enforcement guidelines.
At the Yahui commercial center construction site in Hexi District, six newly installed surveillance cameras and dust monitoring equipment are overseeing dust control. All trucks must have their tires cleaned before leaving the site.
Shi said all construction sites in the city’s downtown areas have been newly installed with the equipment. The dust monitoring machines, he said, will alarm supervisors if excessive concentration of dust is detected in the air.
Additionally, all dregs transportation vehicles are required to be airtight and equipped with GPS. The drivers have to receive certain training before taking their position, he said.
“A joint law enforcement team composed of staff from different departments of the municipal government has been formed to oversee dust control, and the supervision efficiency is much higher than before.” Shi added, “We are also considering using a kind of spray to solidify the mounds on the construction sites.”
Experts are expecting cleaner air in Tianjin with the strengthened measures in place, while they also noted that it will be a protracted battle considering the huge size of the construction sites.
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