Zhuhai has come in first among nine Pearl River Delta cities with an Air Quality Index compliance rate of 96.2 percent during the first seven months of 2021.

Concentrations of PM2.5, PM10, and O3 averaged 20, 37, and 128 mcg/m³ respectively during the period. Of note, the concentration of PM 2.5 dropped by 8.3 percent month on month to 11 mcg/m³ in July, and that of PM10 plummeted by 23.8 percent to 16 mcg/m³.

This year, Zhuhai has further refined supervision by compiling and releasing partitioned management workplans and lists of key tasks and areas. So far this year:

Local industry has become greener and 90 enterprises have been designated for clean production in 2021 and 2022. Meanwhile, direct natural gas supply is available for six major enterprise consumers. And all provincial-level industrial parks have access to gas except Doumen Intelligent Manufacturing Park, which just received approval.

Zhuhai Opera House off Lovers Avenue in Old Xiangzhou [Photo by Wu Changfu / Zhuhai Daily]

All enterprises with volatile organic compound emissions under provincial and municipal key supervision were subjected to tailored treatment policies, which lead to an emission reduction of 13,800 tons from January to July.

In all, transformation has been completed on 10 projects with controlled discharge and five projects with fugitive emissions. Ultra-low emission transformation of Zhuhai Yueyufeng Iron & Steel in Jinwan District is in the works. Local waste incineration temperature has exceeded 850 degrees Celsius and nine cremators across the city have been installed with off-gas purification equipment.

All added cruising taxis and licensed online ride-hailing vehicles were purely electric, while management of high-emission vehicles received remote sensing technology and spot checks. Twenty-seven high-emission vehicles had been captured on camera since Xiangzhou forbade them on April 1.

As of July 18, Zhuhai had inspected 14,612 construction sites and 297 of the 439 problematic ones had been rectified. Moreover, 1,216 of 7,771 inspected dump trucks had been filed for investigation. Relevant authorities have come together for information sharing.

To strengthen prevention and control, Zhuhai has been issuing three-day warning forecasts on AQI and concentrations of six major pollutants. From January to July, 253 prevention and control guidelines were released, 31 days with pollution were tackled, 19,794 sources of air pollution were inspected, 1,336 hidden risks were eliminated, and six analysis reports on the formation of typical pollution were compiled.

The city will also promote local power generation projects to be included in Guangdong's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) for Energy Development.