The Wusong Industrial Zone, which had long been a source of pollution in Shanghai, has been cited as a showcase for recovery and improvement of the ecology and environment.

 

The city in east China accomplished the turn around by revamping and optimizing its industrial structure and production technologies. "Our concept was to improve the environment while revamping structure," said Meng Zhongwei, deputy director of the office in charge of cleaning up the Wusong Industrial Zone.

 

Meng cited the Baosteel Group, a Chinese iron and steel giant, located inside the industrial zone as an example. Baosteel spent 18.3 billion yuan (about US$2.26 billion) upgrading its equipment and technologies and has built new workshops for producing stainless steel and special steel products.

 

As a result, Baosteel has in turn produced less pollution while seeing improvements in its economic output even though there was a slight drop in overall steel output.

 

Sun Jian, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection, said Wusong Industrial Zone's success was due to upgrades to its industrial structure that emphasized both environmental protection and increased economic output.

 

Situated in the northern part of Shanghai and covering an area of 21 square km, the Wusong Industrial Zone used to house 180 industrial ventures that pumped out 28,800 tons air pollutants -- 30 percent of the city's total -- every year.

 

An inadequate sewer system meant untreated waste water was discharged into local waterways inside the industrial zone causing a stink that could be smelled 200 days a year. The zone's green space was a meager 2.8 percent.

 

That was six years ago before the city embarked on an ambitious plan to clean up the zone. Sixteen major enterprises and 40 production lines were relocated. Over 1,100 households were moved elsewhere and 150 coal-fired boilers were upgraded.

 

The clean up efforts cost 2.85 billion yuan (about US$351 million) and included adding 430 hectares of green space 21 percent of which is planted with trees. A waste water system has also been installed along with facilities for monitoring air quality.

 

(Xinhua News Agency February 12, 2006)