Air quality harmful to health half of the days in first six first months of 2013
Beijing (AsiaNews) - Air quality in 74 major cities was deemed unsafe for nearly half of the days in the first six months of this year. the Beijing Tianjin-Hebei area was found to be the most polluted region, this according to a report from the Ministry of Environmental Protection that listed the areas with the highest rates of air pollution on its website yesterday.
In an interview, Environmental Minister Zhou Shengxian said that air pollution had become so severe that the country could "no longer afford further delays in its clean-up efforts".
During the first half of the year, air quality was rated "severely polluted" in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei for 26 per cent of days, and the primary cause was PM2.5, tiny airborne particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter, due to industrial production. Only 31 per cent of days in the region saw air quality on par with national standards, according to the ministry.
In Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital of Hebei, air quality was within national safety standards only 10 per cent of the time.
Speaking to the Communist party's People's Daily, Zhou said that the State Council (cabinet) approved 35 measures to improve air quality, following a 10-point plan released in June, but details of the plan remain unclear.
The plan included harsher penalties for polluters, he said, and that investment would be increased in clean-up programmes, whilst local governments would be held responsible for failing to meet air quality targets.
At present, pollution, along with corruption, remains China's worst problem. Obsessed by the need to produce at any cost, the authorities are determined to use any form of fuel to allow companies to remain active. The national economy relies for 70 per cent on burning coal.
The government wants to improve the situation, but knows that more stringent environmental laws would penalise investments, and so it waits.
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