Smaller cities get help in smog battle in N China

SHIJIAZHUANG - Jia Lifei has spent the last nine years in frustration as an environment staff member in Xingtai, a city four hours drive from Beijing.

"Xingtai, like many other cities in Hebei, earned a name for being a city of smog, and in the last few years, blue skies could only be seen about half of the year," said Jia, who works at the environment inspection brigade in Xingtai, south of Beijing in the Hebei province.

"I felt embarrassed as an environment worker because my hands were tied. The government was also under huge pressure from the public and investors," he said.

With the introduction of a coordinated development plan between Beijing, Hebei and Tianjin, in which pollution control is one of the top priorities, Xingtai may finally get a break from years of entrapment by polluting industries.

Xingtai thrived on steel, cement and glass-making, some of the worst polluters.

In a 25-kilometer radius, there were 133 coal-burning companies, which enveloped the city in pollution all year around.

"No matter what season, or what direction the wind blows, the pollutants have no where to go but downtown Xingtai," said Si Guoliang, director of environment protection bureau.

From last year, local officials have been curtailing these industries. Shahe, administered by Xingtai, produces one fifth of the glass in China. Ninety production lines have been shut down and 52 others were made less polluting.

"More than 1.56 billion yuan have been spent to cut pollutants," said Qiao Guangru, deputy environment chief of Shahe.

According to a national plan, Beijing needs to spend 460 million yuan ($37 million) to cut coal consumption in Langfang and Baoding, two of worst polluted cities in Hebei. Xingtai also gets fund to fight pollution.

"We have begun to see more blue skies," said Jia Lifei, who has worked in Xingtai after graduating from college in 2007.

In the first six months, breathable particles PM2.5 in Hebei province decreased by 23 percent, compared with the same period last year.

"As long as the local governments persist in the battle against smog, improve the industrial structure and step up efforts to curb pollution, blue skies will stay in Xingtai and other northern Chinese cities," said Li Ting, a researcher in the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.