Publication date: 16-03-2013
About 1,500 monitoring sites releasing daily readings of fine particles will be set up in the prefecture-level cities by the end of 2015, said environmental top officials of China yesterday.
Wu Xiaoqing, vice Minister of environmental protection, said at a press conference that the objective for the 2013 is building more than 440 new monitoring stations in 116 cities.
Less than 500 sites were already set in 74 cities in 2012, giving the public real time readings of PM 2.5 particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter that can reach deep into the lungs and bloodstream to can — from 1 January.
Acceleration of the building of air monitoring stations between the Ministry top tasks in the tasks list for the combating of air pollution for several years, but the heavy smog and haze covering large areas of the country flooded five times in January, the process accelerated.
"Some large and medium-sized cities constantly encounter smog and haze, in winter and in summer too," said Wu.
"The situation is especially serious in regions such as the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, covered by haze for more than 100 days per year. The figure even reached to more than 200 days in some cities. "
Wu said these regions account for only 8 percent of the total land area, yet consume more than 40 percent of the coal and half of the gasoline and diesel, and discharge of 30 percent of the country, non-sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and dust.
Experts have called for local governments in these important regions joint prevention and control of air pollution because pollutants not within the administrative limits.
Luo Yi, head of the Department monitoring environment service, said another 96 regional control sites will be set up for the end of 2015 on the borders of cities and provinces within the main regions, and the routes of the air pollutants will show.
Environmental protection Minister Zhou Shengxian said in January that a working group dedicated to the improvement of the regional joint protection and control systems will be set up, under the leadership of the Ministry with relevant departments and local governments as members.
The core reasons for the outbreak of smog and haze and Wu attributed to a concentrated view of China's environmental problems collected over decades of rapid industrialization and urbanization instead of the weather.
"The obvious reason the bad weather, but the heavy pollution caused by the structure of our energy from coal, our rapidly expanding motor vehicle ownership, our construction sites that scatter everywhere, and our controlling measures that far from enough lead to the result of smog and haze," said Wu.
If you want to change the situation from becoming more severe pollution, stresses the Deputy Minister to take several measures the Ministry of plan by 2015.
"We will press important enterprises disclose State-controlled on the pollutants they emit by the end of this year, and perform full control of coal consumption in regions with the most serious pollution," said Wu.
The Ministry has also encouraged the thermal emissions, iron and steel, petrochemical, cement, non-ferrous metals and chemical industries to reach international advanced levels in 47 cities, starting from March 1.
"This is the toughest measure in the country's history of and pollution control," said Wu. "For that special restrictions are laid down only in a relatively small part of the Taihu Lake basin."
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