shenzhen's air quality was moderately improved in the first quarter of 2014, largely thanks to more rain, favorable air currents and stepped-up efforts to curb emissions.
the air quality index (aqi), a standardized gauge of air pollutant concentrations adopted by shenzhen last year, reached "good" and "fairly good" on 81 days in the first quarter. that's two more days than the same period last year, according to a quarterly environmental report released yesterday.
the hourly average concentration of most air pollutants, including pm2.5, pm10, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide, dropped marginally, the report showed.
air quality officers attributed the improvement to increased levels of precipitation, stronger air currents and more aggressive measures to reduce emissions.
shenzhen received more than 240 millimeters of rain in the first quarter, nearly 100 millimeters more than the first quarter of last year. the increased levels of rainfall helped clean up the air, said he liang, vice station master at the shenzhen environmental monitoring center.
the increased velocity of air currents throughout the first quarter and more wind flowing from the south in march also helped disperse air pollutants in the city, he said.
in addition, the city has adopted a more aggressive stance in enforcing environmental measures intended to curb emissions. those measures include the adoption of cleaner diesel fuels last december, eliminating more heavily polluting motor vehicles and dismantling most of the city's coal-fired power plants, officials said.
the quality of water in most rivers also improved in the first quarter. maozhou river in bao'an district improved significantly in terms of water quality after the city constructed a water treatment plant, conducted a sewage interception project and shut own several heavily polluting enterprises in the area, water officials said.
in the first quarter, the city processed 304 cases of environmental violations and imposed fines totaling 17.73 million yuan (us$2.88 million).
(source:shenzhen daily)
