Clear skies

Well known in the country for heavy industry and severe pollution, some cities in Liaoning province were not even visible by satellite in the 1980s.

Today, however, the sky in Shenyang, the province's capital, is bluer than Beijing, says a proud Zhang Wenyue, the provincial party chief.

Last year, Shenyang had over 320 good air quality days, about 70 days more than Beijing, thanks to the province's efforts in energy savings and emission control, he says.

Thousands of chimneys have been demolished in Shenyang, together with small heating boilers. Instead of coal, which used to be the major fuel for the northeast city's winter heat supply, more electricity is being used.

"We are going to further diversify energy by developing hydropower, wind power and solar power," Zhang says.

These are just part of the measures local governments and enterprises have taken to protect the environment and save energy.

Take Benxi Steel, whose heavy industry accounts for 97 percent of this city's industry. It said "no" to 16 high-energy consuming and polluting projects last year.

The local steelmaker has upgraded its key equipment to make sure 100 percent of its coke oven gas is used.

Such moves by Bexin and other businesses have helped the city, once one of the world's 10 most polluted places, to earn the title of garden city, awarded by the provincial government last year.

In Dalian, a coastal city in the northeast province, importance is attached to not only technology upgrading but also wastewater treatment to protect Bohai Bay.

Mayor Xia Deren says the city has set up some advanced plants to treat wastewater.

When the third phase of the Malanhe Wastewater Treatment Plant is completed, "Dalian will be able to treat over 90 percent of its waste water," he says.

He says the city's investment in energy savings and emission control along with enterprises' technology upgrading is expected to rise 20 percent this year from about 2 billion yuan in 2007.

Liaoning's energy intensity index, which shows how much energy is used in the production of every 10,000 yuan (one unit) of gross domestic product (GDP), was down 4.5 percent last year from a year ago. China's index meanwhile fell 3.27 percent.

The province also saw its emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) decreased by 2 percent and its chemical oxygen demand (COD), a key measure of water pollution, drop by 2.08 percent from a year ago.

This is not enough, Zhang says. The provincial government also called on farmers to use organic fertilizer instead of chemical fertilizer in order to avoid polluting the soil and groundwater.

(China Daily 03/17/2008 page10)