Authorities in the southwest China municipality of Chongqing are claiming success in the battle
against its infamous smog after a long campaign for cleaner
air.
The city has seen the annual number of hazy days more than
halved to an average of 51 in the last four years from 110
previously, claim officials.
The city government reported the number of days with good air
quality at 287 last year, compared with 187 in 2000.
The hazy weather was a frequent phenomenon because of the city's
unique geographic conditions, said Mayor Wang Hongju.
Chongqing, situated at the junction of the Yangtze and Jialing
Rivers, is flanked by mountains and also sits at the upper end of
the Three Gorges Reservoir. It is also the most important
industrial base in west China.
This has resulted in fog from the rivers accumulating with soot
and dust discharged by industrial firms.
Wang said the improvement was a result of growing awareness of
environmental protection in the city.
The city government had spent more than 50 billion yuan (US$6.25
billion) in financing ecological and environmental construction and
protection projects since it became a municipality 10 years
ago.
The "boilers revolution", begun in 2000, saw all medium-sized
and small coal-fired boilers in urban districts adapted for clean
fuels such as natural gas and electricity.
Because of the campaign, the city saw a drop of 76,000 tons in
discharges of sulfur dioxide, plus a decrease of 35,000 tons in the
discharges of dust in downtown areas each year.
The city also launched a "blue sky" plan in 2001 by remodeling
cabs and public buses operating in downtown areas to slash exhaust
emissions, and began to relocate heavy industrial polluters out of
downtown areas in 2004.
Forty-nine industrial enterprises had been moved by late
2006.
Trees coverage in the city had risen from 20 percent 10 years
ago to 32 percent.
Chongqing used to fall under the jurisdiction of Sichuan
Province. On March 14, 1997, deputies to the fifth session of the
eight National People's Congress voted to make it a
municipality.
China has three other municipalities: Beijing, Shanghai and
Tianjin.
(Xinhua News Agency March 15, 2007)
