Hebei to get early alert of pollution

The preparation for an early warning system on air pollution will be finished by the end of September in Hebei province, allowing the relevant departments to release an air quality index and pollution report to residents in a timely fashion, the province environmental protection authority said on Friday.

The departments of environmental protection and weather forecast launched a joint action on Friday, aiming to control air pollution and update the air quality index quickly.

They will cooperate in developing the early warning system on air pollution in the whole province, based on their round-the-clock monitoring of air pollution and weather conditions, which will allow the departments to release early warnings for residents before smog covers the cities.

In addition, experts will hand in assessment reports on air pollution to the emergency response headquarters, providing professional advice for decision-makers to make efforts to reduce the pollution, including mandatory emissions reduction measures.

The environmental protection department of the province has released a series of measures to control air pollution and released the goals on Thursday.

By 2017, the fine particulate matter concentrations in the province will be reduced by 25 percent from levels in 2012, it says. The use of coal will be cut by 40 million tons from the level in 2012. Moreover, the production of iron and steel will be lowered by 60 million tons by 2017.

Hebei has been the area suffering the most from haze for the past eight months. It has seven cities listed among the top 10 cities with the most serious air pollution of the 74 major domestic cities, according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

In the 11 cities of Hebei, only 56 days reached the national standard for air quality in the 181 days of the first half-year of 2013.