CHINA: OLYMPIC GAMES - China pulls out all the stops in attempt to curb pollution for the Olympic Games

Record ID: 216798

  • Title: CHINA: OLYMPIC GAMES - China pulls out all the stops in attempt to curb pollution for the Olympic Games
  • Date: 8th August 2007
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF PIPELINES CLOSE UP OF WHEEL VARIOUS OF FACTORY MACHINE PARTS WIDE VIEW OF THE FACTORY WIDE VIEW OF CHIMNEY
  • Embargoed: 23rd August 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA85PRBS3JZSFTV906K28WBGLEV
  • Story Text: On Tuesday (August 7), one day before the one-year countdown for the 2008 Olympic Games, China showed journalists a closed chemical plant on the outskirts of Beijing.
    A year ago, the municipal government of Beijing moved heavily polluting industries out of Beijing to its nearby Hebei province. Beijing Coking and Chemical Plant was one of them. All of the staff had to stop working until the government find new jobs for them.
    Once, a major polluter of Beijing's air, the factory now stands empty and eerily quiet, a far cry from days when its halls provided jobs for 4,000 workers and their families.
    Zhang Yuzhuang, manager of the plant said if it wasn't for the Olympics, the plant would never have been moved.
    "People understand that they shouldn't blame Olympics for their lost jobs. But it is precisely because of the Olympics that we are reforming.
    This means, I am not working at this factory now but I do have a new position somewhere else. Some of the workers here will start their new coking job again", he said.
    Beijing, is one of the most polluted cities in the world, despite the city government's efforts to reduce pollutants. But the government's reports show that the city had "good air" on nearly two thirds of days last year.
    Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), is in Beijing for the countdown celebrations and he said he remains positive about China's efforts.
    "I believe that the results of their strategy will yield a success. I'm optimistic for the Games time. First of all, they will remove more than one million cars from circulation which is huge and will have a dramatic impact. They are continuously relocating heavy polluting industry to other places. They are switching the thermal plants that are now fuelled by coal to gas plants. They are initiating a lot of ground. They are cleaning the water. So I believe that this will definitely give a good result", he said.
    Rogge will be back in Beijing for the meeting of the IOC's executive board at the end of April 2008, Beijing is not the first Olympic host city to have pollution problems and this year's test events offer a good chance to monitor progress on the issue.
    The city spent 20 billion Yuan (2.57 billion U.S. dollars) fighting pollution last year, taking 15,000 old taxis and 3,000 old buses off the road and closing down a large chemical factory.
    The emissions from five large power stations in the city have been treated to remove pollutants and dust, while 15,000 industrial boilers in the city centre have been upgraded.
    Further reductions of 10 percent in the sulphur dioxide levels and 245 "good air" days had been targeted for 2007, according to local officials.
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