Traffic chaos as smog persists
Print Edition
LOW visibility caused by fog and smog in large parts of China is disrupting traffic after the New Year holiday.
At the airport in Shijiazhuang, capital of north China’s Hebei Province, 164 arrivals and departures had been canceled as of 4:30pm yesterday, the airport said. Four flights were forced to land at other airports and another 23 flights were delayed.
Dense fog temporarily closed several sections of six expressways in Beijing on the morning of the first working day after the New Year holiday, according to the capital’s traffic management bureau.
In east China’s Shandong Province, 80 flights had been canceled or delayed at the airport in the capital, Jinan, as of 11am.
About 180 flights were canceled over the past two days in neighboring Henan Province, with visibility falling to just 10 meters in the morning. The airport resumed operations in the afternoon, but more fog is expected today, the airport said.
Many regions in China have been under heavy smog since Friday. On Sunday, Beijing extended its orange alert for heavy air pollution until midnight today.
China’s national observatory yesterday issued a red alert for fog and renewed an orange alert for smog in a number of northern, eastern and central regions. China has a four-tier color-coded warning system for severe weather, with red being the most serious, followed by orange, yellow and blue.
The poor visibility also prompted three major northern ports to suspend the loading of ships yesterday.
China is in the third year of its “war on pollution,” aimed at reversing the damage done by decades of runaway economic growth.
It has created emergency response systems to curb traffic and shut down factories and construction sites, and has vowed to punish officials and enterprises that break rules.
In December, inspectors identified 21 enterprises that had violated regulations.
Over the New Year period, 10 more inspection teams went to cities across the north and more than 500 enterprises and construction sites were punished for breaches.
Hebei, the province suffering the worst from smog, said that six enterprises had violated restrictions during the latest alerts, with one refusing entry to inspectors.
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