Andreas Habich
This week, the Ministry of Ecology and the Environment (MEE) ordered that cities take emergency measures and strengthen supervision to fight smog. Shanghai Securities News reported that the notification also included measures to close or reduce production at a certain number of plants in the region.
This week, as many as 34 cities in North China have issued smog alerts amid fears that industrial activity is beginning to grow again after six months of tight restrictions.
Earlier, the ministry said that strong smog, which will stay for the most of the week, was caused by warm and humid air, as well as by the resumption of work at large industrial enterprises in the region.
The winter campaign in China, aimed at closing down 28 factories in northern cities and limiting production, was completed earlier this month, but the largest steel mill in Tangshan has already announced plans to expand the restrictions until November.
The manager at the steel plant in Tangshan said that they received notice of the closure of production throughout this week. A separate branch official said that production restrictions are currently operating throughout the city.
However, the head of a ceramics company in Zibo in Shandong province, which was forced to suspend operations at the end of last year, said that his company had not received any orders to suspend production since January.
Currently, China is developing a new three-year action plan to combat smog in large industrial regions. The PRC authorities have promised more stringent goals and more reasonable methods of control.
Earlier, Beijing decided to suspend the construction of major public projects in the city in the winter period 2017-2018 in an attempt to improve the air quality in the capital. The construction of roads and water facilities, as well as the demolition of housing, are banned for the period from November 15 to March 15 in six main districts of the city and the suburbs.
This period covers four months, when houses and other buildings of the city are supplied with heating.
China has been trying to fight urban air pollution for four years to reverse the damage caused by decades of unhindered economic growth and to eliminate fears that the dangerous smog and widespread water and soil contamination each year result in hundreds of thousands of early deaths.
source: reuters.com
This week, as many as 34 cities in North China have issued smog alerts amid fears that industrial activity is beginning to grow again after six months of tight restrictions.
Earlier, the ministry said that strong smog, which will stay for the most of the week, was caused by warm and humid air, as well as by the resumption of work at large industrial enterprises in the region.
The winter campaign in China, aimed at closing down 28 factories in northern cities and limiting production, was completed earlier this month, but the largest steel mill in Tangshan has already announced plans to expand the restrictions until November.
The manager at the steel plant in Tangshan said that they received notice of the closure of production throughout this week. A separate branch official said that production restrictions are currently operating throughout the city.
However, the head of a ceramics company in Zibo in Shandong province, which was forced to suspend operations at the end of last year, said that his company had not received any orders to suspend production since January.
Currently, China is developing a new three-year action plan to combat smog in large industrial regions. The PRC authorities have promised more stringent goals and more reasonable methods of control.
Earlier, Beijing decided to suspend the construction of major public projects in the city in the winter period 2017-2018 in an attempt to improve the air quality in the capital. The construction of roads and water facilities, as well as the demolition of housing, are banned for the period from November 15 to March 15 in six main districts of the city and the suburbs.
This period covers four months, when houses and other buildings of the city are supplied with heating.
China has been trying to fight urban air pollution for four years to reverse the damage caused by decades of unhindered economic growth and to eliminate fears that the dangerous smog and widespread water and soil contamination each year result in hundreds of thousands of early deaths.
source: reuters.com
