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在线翻译:
szdaily -> Opinion -> 
Recent air pollution exposes official inaction
    2015-11-16  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

    Lei Xiangping

    lagon235@163.com

    SINCE early this year, China has revised the environment protection law and the air pollution prevention law to impose tougher penalties on polluters and oblige local governments to take concrete measures to curb air pollution by holding them accountable.

    Dubbed the harshest anti-air-pollution laws, these two latest laws have not been implemented in some provinces. Some provinces have not taken the required steps to optimize their energy consumption by using clean energy and improving coal quality and have not learned what precautions should be put in place in case extremely polluted air arrives suddenly.

    Since entering the heating season in early November, fine particulate matter readings (PM 2.5) in three provinces in Northeast China — Liaoning, Heilongjiang and Jilin — have reached record highs. Just on Nov. 7, 11 out of Liaoning’s 14 cities had extremely polluted weather, and the average PM2.5 reading in the provincial capital of Shenyang reached 1,155 micrograms per cubic meter. Worse still, the reading in several observation sites of Shenyang even rose drastically to 1,400 on Nov. 8.

    On that day, the whole of Shenyang was shrouded in white smog, with visibility less than 100 meters. Residents felt very bad, with pain in their eyes and throats when they went outside and lots of respiratory patients swarmed into hospitals.

    In dealing with the extreme air pollution, Shenyang city government acted slowly and inefficiently. When air pollution levels reached the severest degree, the city government initially didn’t announce a red alert to remind government departments like the public transportation bureau and education bureau to take precautions or tell ordinary citizens to take precautions.

    Because the red alert was not released in a timely fashion, many factories in Shenyang that should have closed continued to spew out emissions when the PM 2.5 reading reached 1,400: laborers on construction sites worked as usual, restrictions were not imposed on cars, sanitation workers worked without any protective measures on the street, and even public schools still received students.

    

    Some city officials attributed the pollution to an increase in heating demands, but their failure to take timely precautions can’t be ignored. In response to the two national laws for air pollution prevention and control, Shenyang government had enacted a concrete precaution plan to tackle severe air pollution conditions, yet the plan only remains a piece of paper.

    Generally, northern cities face air pollution problems when the heating season comes, hence putting tangible precautions in place in advance is not difficult.

    Another problem exposed by the recent air pollution is the long-existing inefficiency in controlling emissions. In Liaoning Province alone, over half of the urban communities have no access to centralized heating systems, but instead rely on independent boilers for warmth. Coal-fired boilers are heavy polluters.

    For cities in Northeast China, building a clean energy-dominated heating network by reducing coal consumption and improving coal quality is one dispensable process in improving the worsening air quality. However, the latest data shows that this area has not reached the target in controlling pollutant emissions.

    The latest battle with air pollution in the northeast is not an isolated case but a compelling illustration that shows air pollution problems in China haven’t been resolved effectively.

    Air pollution concerns public health and is also a hot issue that catches the attention of hundreds of millions of people. To fight air pollution, China should continue transforming its energy structure, oblige local governments to put necessary precautions into practice and give officials who can’t control air pollution effectively the punishment they deserve.

    (The author is a News Desk editor with China Radio International.)

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