BEIJING: Only three of China's 74 major cities meet its national air quality standards, said deputy minister for environmental protection Wu Xiaoqing. The three clean cities are distant and low-industry centres of Lhasa in Tibet and two islands, Hainan and Zhoushan.
Worst pollution levels in China was seen in the industrialized Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei belt which experienced high air pollution on more than 60% of days last year, he said. People in smog plagued Beijing inhaled pollutants 10 times more than the permissible limits set by the World Health Organization.
Sources said the government has decided to force polluting industries pay for the health damage they are causing. It is revising the law to hold "polluters accountable for the damage they cause and having them compensate for it", said Zhang Dejiang who sits on the powerful seven-member Politburo of the Communist Party.
The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region saw an average level of PM2.5 — tiny pollutant particles smaller than 2.5 microns that can penetrate deep into the lungs — at 106 micrograms per cubic metre last year which is extremely high. This region houses seven of the country's 10 most polluted cities.
Three industrial regions — Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area in northern China, Yangtze Delta in the east and Pearl River Delta in the south — cover just 8% of China's area but consume 43% of fuel resources. They are also responsible for 30% of the air pollution in the country.
"Our measures to curb air, water and other types of pollution may somewhat stall the growth of our gross domestic product but this is what we have to do," Wu said. He admitted it will not be easy to enforce new laws for punishing polluters as the government will need to undertake fierce negotiations among interest groups.
Chinese premier Li Keqiang last week vowed to "declare war on pollution". But his statement was criticized by environmentalist who said investments on clean energy devices have actually come down 10% last year.
