CRI听力:China Reinforces Quick Response Measures for Smog

Municipal authorities in Beijing announced plans to upgrade from orange to red on Monday night, marking the first-ever time a red-alert has been issued for Beijing since the 4-tiered color-coded system for smog was instituted 3-years ago.

The red-alert comes after the capital region was given just few days rest from the smog, after having to cope with orange-alert conditions just 4-days before.

By sounding the red-alert, a series of automatic measures kick-in, including the odd-even license plate restrictions to keep half the vehicles in Beijing off the roads.

Li Lifeng with the Beijing Public Transport Commission says more public transit has been added to help keep the city moving the next few days.

"Starting this Tuesday, we have added 840-vehicles on the key lines. This has increased public transport capacity by 15-thousand vehicles per day."

As part of the red-alert, which officially began at 7 this Tuesday morning, its being recommended schools advise their students to stay home.

Xian Lianping, head of Beijing's municipal education commission, says the request is voluntary.

"Parents who don't have time to be with their children during the day can still send their kids to school. But we recommend students take part in indoor activities and study at home. Most students have chosen to stay at home and study online with their teachers. Because this is the first red alert in Beijing, and we are hoping to learn from this experience to do more to improve the system so that we will be more prepared if this happens again."

At the same time, industrial facilities have also been ordered to close or severely curtail their output.

Outdoor construction projects in the city have also been shut down under the red-alert.

The red-alert in Beijing comes on the heels of the Ministry of Environmental Protection announcing the creation of an emission permit system this past week.

Under the program, any new industrial facilities being built and operated will have to adhere to the limits they've qualified for when it comes to air, water and solid waste output.

Bi Jun with School for the Environment at Nanjing University says the permit system is more targeted than the previous approval process.

"Through the new system, we have a much better idea of how much pollution is being discharged into the environment, and better ensure that emissions are meeting the standards we set for individual operations. If we can get all companies under the permit certification process, it will go a long way toward ensuring our environment is better-protected."

In addition to the steps being taken in Beijing during this 'red-alert,' neighboring Hebei and Henan are taking similar steps to keep the air in their provinces clean.

Factories in those provinces are being required to reduce dust, sulfur dioxide and nitric oxide emissions by at least 15-percent.

On top of this, fleets of sprinkler vehicles are also on the streets in Hebei and Henan to try to knock down the pollution still being pumped out.

This current bout of smog in the greater-Beijing region is the 2nd so far this month, and is expected to linger until Thursday.

Coal-fired electricity generation, as well as vehicle exhaust, are said to be the main factors driving up pollution levels across the region.

For CRI, this is Li Jianhua.