Ploughs will be used instead of chemical agents to clear roads
Beijing's armies of snow shovellers were on high alert last night as the capital braced for the first snowfall of the season.
Work units, community centres, universities and schools have been called on to mobilise the masses this winter as local authorities promise to cut back on the use of chemical agents to clear the roads.
The decision to revert to a combination of spades and snow ploughs to deal with the problem comes as local government officials admit the calcium chloride solution they have been using to melt the snow is unsafe for the environment.
In an effort to regulate the quality of the melting agent, for the first time last year calcium chloride solution was purchased and distributed through a single governmental centre.
More than 13,500 tonnes of the chloride solution was used to shift 72,600 tonnes of ice and snow, at a cost of almost 40 million yuan (HK$37.6 million) last winter. But when the concrete-like slabs of ice heaped up on the roadsides melted in early spring, it was clear the melting agent had burned large areas of grass underneath.
'The widely used solution contains lots of chloride and can sterilise land and pollute water if used in large quantities,' said Song Guojun, from the school of the environment and natural resources at Renmin University.
