China's battle
against a persistent air pollution crisis, which all but shut down a city of 11
million this week, is being hampered by tough weather conditions, an
environmental official said on Tuesday.
Air quality in
cities is of increasing concern to China's stability-obsessed leaders, anxious
to douse potential unrest as a more affluent urban population turns against a
growth-at-all-costs economic model that has besmirched much of the country's
air, water and soil.
The government
has announced many plans to fight pollution over the years but has made little
apparent progress, especially in the country's north and northeast.
Harbin, a frigid
northeastern city of 11 million people, virtually ground to a halt on Monday
when a pollution index showed airborne contaminants at around 50 times the
levels recommended by the World Health Organisation.
"This
severe smog, first of all, is caused by climate conditions," Fang Li, the
deputy chief of Beijing's municipal environmental protection bureau, told
reporters.
"Right now,
total pollution emissions have exceeded environmental capacity," he told a
news conference on new smog emergency measures in the capital.
Fang blamed
thick fog for the pollution still blanketing Harbin and large parts of the
northeast.
"Harbin, coincidentally,
on its first day of winter heating encountered thick fog - these two things are
closely linked," he said.
"If you
just equate heavy pollution with winter heating, then the whole winter would be
like this. That's not possible".
Collective central
heating, activated on a date set by the government, provides heat to 65 percent
of Harbin, figures quoted last year in the state media show. Much of that heat
comes from burning coal.
Beijing's
central heating normally comes on in mid-November.
Beijing,
sometimes derided as "Greyjing" or "Beige-jing" by
English-speaking residents, suffered its own smog emergency last winter, when
the pollution index reached 45 times the recommended level one particularly bad
day in January.
Smoke from
factories and heating plants, winds from the Gobi Desert and fumes from
millions of vehicles can combine to blanket the city in a pungent shroud for
days.
If three days of
hazardous and near hazardous pollution are forecast this winter, Fang said, the
capital will temporarily halt construction, factory production, outdoor
barbecues and fireworks.
If hazardous
pollution is expected for three consecutive days, school will be cancelled and
temporary curbs imposed on driving, he added.
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