Beijing is considering banning 90 percent of private cars from its roads and closing more factories in a last-ditch bid to clear smoggy skies for the Olympics, state media reported yesterday.
With just 11 days to go before the start of the Olympic Games, Beijing was blanketed in a dense white haze yesterday that cut visibility in the city of 17 million down to just a few hundred meters.
Last week Beijing ordered more than 1 million cars from the roads and closed dozens of polluting factories but the effort has failed to remove the stubborn layer of unhealthy haze.
Acknowledging the failure of the initial car ban introduced on July 20, Beijing authorities are expected to announce more stringent emergency measures soon, the China Daily quoted the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau as saying.
One plan under consideration put forward by a city environmentalist was to ban 90 percent of all private vehicles from the streets of the capital during the Games, the paper said.
The Beijing Olympic organizing committee was unable to confirm what new measures would be introduced.
“The new car ban represents the personal opinion of an environmentalist professor. As far as we are concerned we have not heard of any such new measures,” spokeswoman Zhu Jing (朱靜) said.
Li Xin, an official with the environmental bureau, said that the emergency plan would go into effect before the Games start, the China Daily said.
“We will implement an emergency plan 48 hours in advance [of the Games] if the air quality deteriorates,” he was quoted as saying.
On Sunday, Du Shaozhong (杜少中), spokesman for the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, acknowledged that tougher measures were needed to improve air quality.
Du said the extra measures were “under preparation” but gave no additional details, the report said.
“The air quality in Beijing must be improved. Seventy percent of the year the air is good, but for the remaining 30 percent, the air quality still does not meet the standard,” Du said.
International Olympic Committee chief Jacques Rogge warned last year that poor air quality during the Games could result in the suspension of some events, particularly endurance races such as the marathon.
Under the car ban launched July 20, cars with odd and even number plates are allowed on streets only on alternate days. Beijing had earlier taken 300,000 heavily polluting vehicles off the road.
HONG KONG
Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, dozens of Olympic equestrian horses had to exercise in a blanket of choking smog yesterday, as a dense white haze blurred the skyline.
The Hong Kong Observatory said the haze had cut visibility to about 3km at midday.
The territory’s air pollution level was classified as high, although it had not yet crossed the critical 100 mark, the point at which those with respiratory or heart problems are urged to stay at home.
But a spokesman for the Equestrian Company, which is responsible for hosting the Olympic Equestrian events in Hong Kong, said they were confident the pollution would not pose a risk to horses.
“We have kept our horses in a high-ceilinged, six-star stable with a temperature constantly maintained at 23˚C, which according to our vets is the optimum temperature for the animals,” the spokesman said.
A total of 204 horses will take part in Olympic equestrian events.
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