China issues smog warnings for its northern parts

SHANGHAI: Chinese environment ministry has issued an environmental warning to the country’s northern parts, which have already been facing a sustained period of pollution owed to heavy smog build up for the past two weeks. The pollution levels are threatening to overshadow the country’s National Day celebrations in October. China will mark the 70^th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic on October 1, with Beijing and the surrounding province of Hebei already implementing special measures to tighten security, curb firework sales and suspend mining activities in order to minimise potential disruptions. Various cities in the northern parts of China have imposed output curbs on steel mills, power plants, coking coal producers and cement factories for this week in a bid to restore the declining air quality of the region before the National Day celebrations.

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment said in a statement published late on Monday that prolonged and adverse weather conditions across eastern coastal regions were still expected to lead to heavy smog build-ups in and around Beijing over the next two weeks.

It is expected that low pressure east of the Taihang mountain range between the provinces of Hebei and Henan would allow emissions to be pushed north to Beijing, where high humidity levels would speed up the conversion of industrial and vehicle emissions into damaging airborne smog particles.

It said it had notified local governments in the cities of Beijing and Tianjin as well as the provinces of Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu, urging them to pay close attention to smog and take action where appropriate to reduce emissions.

Tangshan, China’s biggest steelmaking city, is already stepping up efforts. It issued an orange smog alert on Monday, September 23, and imposed stricter curbs on blast furnaces and electric arc furnaces at steel mills from Tuesday, September 24, according to a document reviewed by Reuters and confirmed by a source with a local steel association.

Other cities in Hebei, including Hengshui and Cangzhou, also issued anti-pollution curbs starting from September 24 following orders from the provincial environmental regulator, according to statements from local government and state media.