Shanghai estimates that it will take a decade to solve its serious pollution

bhushraislam145

The serious pollution problems of Shanghai, one of the most populated cities on the planet with 24 million inhabitants, will not be completely solved for a decade, according to a local government specialist.

The battle to combat pollution in the Chinese city, which three weeks ago experienced for days one of its densest and most dangerous polluting haze in recent years, and which again these days is once again suffering a worsening of air quality, will be long, he said, although the authorities are determined to win it.

This was explained by the director of the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau, Zhang Quan, to a group of deputies of the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress (local legislature), according to the official newspaper “Shanghai Daily” today.

“We must have the determination to prepare for a tough and long battle,” since the dense pollution that usually surrounds the immense city “can hardly change in a short period of time,” Zhang said, so the population will have to be alerted. whenever necessary until it is resolved.

At the beginning of the month, when an immense cloud of Europe Cell Phone Number List pollution blackened much of the east of the Asian giant, Shanghai recorded more than 600 micrograms per cubic meter of the so-called PM 2.5 polluting particles, with a diameter of less than 2.5 microns and with the capacity to infiltrate the lungs.

These types of particles, the most dangerous, are also the main components of the toxic haze that often envelops Shanghai and other large cities in the country.



Today 152 micrograms per cubic meter are recorded, although the theoretical standard in China for air quality is a maximum of 75 (which is rarely met in its large cities), while the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends not exceed 25, which is not the case in dozens of large European cities either.

Anti pollution measures

However, Shanghai has been trying to reduce its emissions for years, with the relocation of factories away from the urban center and a shortage of registrations that tries to contain its growing vehicle fleet.

To this are added short-term measures when pollution increases alarmingly, such as the stoppage of its numerous construction sites or certain traffic restrictions, but these efforts will be insufficient if they are not coordinated with the neighboring cities of the Yangtze Delta and the rest of the country, Zhang warned.

Currently, 50 percent of the city's pollution comes from traffic and factories, to which are added its thousands of construction sites (10.5 percent), its thermal power plants (7.3 percent) and the burning of stubble in the surrounding rural areas (10 percent), indicated the specialist.

About the remaining 20 percent is pollution arriving from other provinces, where pollution problems tend to be greater and car engines are even older and more polluting.

Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang

That is why Shanghai is launching a joint campaign with the densely industrialized neighboring provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to reduce its PM 2.5 emissions by 20 percent over the next three years, and will be punished more firmly than before for the factories and vehicles that do not comply with official standards.

Furthermore, in 2014, the 10,000 highly polluting non-electric public buses that still circulate in Shanghai will be eliminated, and construction trucks will be forced to be cleaned with pressurized water before being able to circulate on its streets.