The Asian Games will be held in Guangzhou November 12-17, and local officials are already concerned about improving air quality:
The Guangdong provincial environmental protection department has said that the Games are taking place at a time when the city goes through the worst time in terms of air quality. There are acid rains during the last quarter of each year in the Guangdong province, where the city is located… Beijing authorities fought air pollution by shifting a large number of polluting industries out of the city and its surrounding areas, curtaining the flow of vehicular traffic and causing artificial rains.
Officials in Guangzhou are reporting bad air quality despite the closure of a large number of industrial units during the financial crisis, which delivered a major blow to export oriented units in the Pearl River Delta areas of the province. They may find it extremely difficult to close down more units at a time when the province is going through a major employment crisis.
“We should develop a long-term effective system in the Pearl River Delta cities to ensure better air quality,” Lin Musheng, vice governor of Guangdong, was quoted as saying by the official media. The local government has promised to ensure at least 96 percent of days have better air quality this year ahead of the Asian Games.
