Acid rain hangs cloud over province

More of Guangdong province came under threat of severe damage from acid rain in the first half of this year, a result in part of an increase in automobile emissions, a recent environment report showed.

Five cities and districts in the province - Shaoguan, Qingyuan, Foshan, Shenzhen and Shunde - were found to be heavily polluted by acid rain in the first six months of this year, up from four in the same period of last year, according to a provincial environmental report for the first half of 2012.

The report, released by the provincial environmental protection department last week, found that 12 cities, or more than half of the province's 21 cities, were polluted by acid rain in the first half, up from 11 in the same period of 2011.