Due to the frequent fogs that enveloped it, Chongqing had earned the label of "foggy city." However, continuing efforts by the municipality have been successful in cleaning up the skies.

 

Situated along the Yangtze River and surrounded by mountains, Chongqing is characterized by a lot of humidity.

 

When the humid air meets with industrial smoke and dust emitted from local plants, the entire city is covered in haze.

 

The past decade has seen heavy investments by the municipal government in environmental protection.

 

Mayor Wang Hongju said that his government invested more than 55 billion yuan between 1997 and 2001 alone in a bid to restore the ecological system.

 

Meanwhile, a series of environmental campaigns aimed at reducing air pollution have been launched.

 

Chongqing began a clean energy project in early 2000 and encouraged local enterprises and residents to replace coal with cleaner energy derived from natural gas and electricity to fuel boilers.

 

The boiler revolution led to an annual 76,000-ton reduction in sulfur dioxide and 35,000-ton fall in smog levels in urban areas.

 

In 2001, the municipal government launched the Blue Sky campaign, seeking to further control air pollution.

 

Some buses and taxis have been modified to use natural gas fuel instead of petroleum. So far, the number of gas-fueled vehicles in service in the city has grown to 40,000, with 53 gas stations providing service to them.

 

Use of the gas vehicles saves at least 100,000 tons of fuel oil every year.

 

As a traditional industrial base, Chongqing has a great number of heavy industrial enterprises clustered in the inner city and industrial waste from them is seen as a main reason for the fog.

 

Thus in 2004, the municipality began a scheme of moving enterprises involved in metallurgy, chemicals and pharmaceuticals to industrial parks on the outskirts of the city.

 

By the end of last year, 49 enterprises had been moved out from the inner city.

 

With the moving out of the enterprises, discharge of sulfur dioxide is estimated to have reduced by 3,943 tons annually.

 

In addition, green coverage has risen to 32 percent from 20 percent 10 years ago, according to statistics provided by Chongqing's Environmental Protection Administration.

 

The environmental efforts have paid off, with the number of average annual foggy days dropping by almost half to 51 in the past four years from 110 earlier, Xinhuanet cited Mayor Wang as saying.

 

Wang also said that energy consumption per 10,000-yuan industrial output of the city has dropped to 2.8-ton coal equivalent from 3.7 tons 10 years ago.

 

(China Daily March 29, 2007)