Taking the city's lead, Waigaoqiao Power Plant, one of the biggest power plants in Shanghai, is to install two sets of desulphuration apparatus to help cut sulphur dioxide emissions.

At a cost of around 430 million yuan (US$51.8 million), the equipment, which is currently being installed, will be in use by the end of next year. When running, the devices will reduce the 16,000 tons of sulphur dioxide the plant emits every year.

The plant manager said they are also raising funds to import two more of the sulphur dioxide cutting devices as those currently being installed will only be able to treat half of the plant's emissions.

Currently, Shanghai has 17 power plants, all of them coal burning. The sulphur dioxide output of these plants stands at about 260,000 tons a year.

"The plants account for half of all sulphur dioxide in Shanghai's air," said Su Guodong, chief of the pollution control division of the Shanghai Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau.

The other half comes mainly from vehicle exhaust and factories that burn coal for the production process.

To better deal with the problem, the city passed legislation forbidding the building of any more coal- burning power plants and making those already running reduce their sulphur dioxide emissions.

The city has issued an order that desulphuration equipment must be in place before any new coal-burning generators are operational.

In view of the huge costs to install these devices, the municipal government has made it clear that the power plants installing desulphuration equipment will get a 0.015 yuan subsidy for each kilowatt-hour of electricity they generate.

Records from the environment protection bureau show that so far this year, the city has had 211 fine air quality days, or 86.1 percent of the year. The city's aim is to increase this figure to 90 percent by the end of next year.

(China Daily September 16, 2004)