China steps up environment checks amid fears National Day parade will be marred by smog
- Pollution across northern region of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and surrounds this week may linger, and high humidity is likely to exacerbate the problem
- Factories will come under more pressure as ministry sends out inspectors
And with the forecast not looking good, the environment ministry said its inspectors would step up checks this week to enforce emission reduction measures in cities around the Chinese capital – adding to pressure on factories.
The northern region of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei province and surrounds is expected to be blanketed in haze from Wednesday to Sunday, and unfavourable conditions mean the pollution could continue into early October, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said in a statement late on Monday.
High humidity was likely to exacerbate the problem, and cities in the nearby provinces of Henan, Shandong, Jiangsu and Anhui could see severe pollution this week and next, the ministry said.
But the weather is another matter, and with the unfavourable conditions expected to last, government experts have called for more pre-emptive measures to control pollution.
Zhang Yuanhang, deputy director of the National Air Pollution Prevention and Control Centre, said the air quality would deteriorate in the northern region from Wednesday.
“And there’s a possibility it will get worse, but it’s hard to say how long it will last and if it will affect the National Day parade,” Zhang said. “There are a lot of uncertainties in a 10-day forecast.”
He noted that China had already “done a lot” to reduce emissions.
“But the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is still dominated by heavy industry, its energy needs are dominated by coal, and transport is dominated by road,” Zhang said. “So the emissions [from the region] are still far beyond what they should be.”
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The region’s emissions of environmental contaminants – such as the tiny, hazardous particles PM2.5 and PM10, sulphur dioxide and VOCs, or volatile organic compounds – were quadruple the national average last year, according to a study by Zhang and his colleagues.
Beijing had already taken measures ahead of the National Day celebrations to curb pollution, as it always does before big events. In August 2015, hundreds of factories were temporarily shut down around Beijing to prepare for a parade to mark the defeat of Japan in World War II, as they were ahead of the two-week Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the Chinese capital in November 2014.
From Tuesday, factories have been temporarily closed or their production reduced in 11 cities near Beijing. There are also restrictions on cars, while heavy polluters such as gravel trucks are banned from the roads.
Some factory owners in Hebei province said they had been told to halt production even earlier.
A foundry manager in Yuanshi county, on the outskirts of Shijiazhuang, said he received a notice last week from local environment officials ordering him to shut the plant.
“All of the foundries in the area have been temporarily shut down – for a month,” said the manager, surnamed Zhang. “I have to wait until October 10 before we can start up again.”
He said the past year had been extremely hard for him after repeated environmental inspections and orders to temporarily stop production.
While the ministry has said many times that blanket production bans were not the answer to tackle pollution, local officials often take severe measures to get fast results.
“I don’t have anything to say about the National Day celebrations,” he said. “All I think about is the fact that my family needs to eat and we need to be able to earn a living.”
