Beijing is expected to invest more than 25 billion yuan this year on pollution control ahead of the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games, said Shi Hanmin, director of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau.
He said, “now Beijing is in the critical phase of pollution control ahead of the Olympics. Investments will be largely increased as expensive and large facilities are built so we estimated that the city will spend more than that of last year”, adding that last year Beijing had spent 25 billion yuan.
Beijing vice mayor Ji Lin said Beijing would like to learn from the experience of past Olympic host cities to ease traffic and improve air quality and clean air and is going to take a series of measures before the Games.
The government requested more than 1,000 gas stations to recycle gas vapour released when cars are fuelled, and Beijing has lifted the bar for emission standards for all cars in the city and is eliminating disqualified cars as well as 2,580 buses and more than 5,000 taxi cabs this year.
Beijing is banning smoking in all hospitals and restricting smokers at major tourist spots, Olympic venues and some restaurants, and the city may fine anyone who smokes at the sites, said Jin Dapeng, director of the Beijing Public Health Bureau. The city has already declared 166 hospitals entirely “smoke-free”, he said. “We’ve promised to showcase en environmentally and smoke-free-free Olympics, and the people in Beijing will do it”.
Other plans include monitoring air quality during the Games, formulating an “air quality guarantee plan” and shutting down or reducing the production of certain industries during the Games.
Ji Lin said that foreign athletes shouldn’t worry about monitoring pollutant levels on their own and there would be no need for Olympic delegations to bring their own experts and equipment to measure air quality during the Games because Chinese officials will introduce mobile air quality testing stations, which will be located at Olympic venues and the Olympic Village.
During the 17-day period of the Games leaders plan to suspend or reduce the output of certain industries. Construction sites can create dust storms, so they could be closed to help improve air quality. Ji Lin said that civil engineering projects are being looked at closely and that road construction will be suspended.
