Shanghai (China), 29 feb (EFE).-the Chinese city of Shanghai (East), the economic and commercial capital of China and the tip of Spear of his development, with 23 million inhabitants, will invest about 10.3 billion yuan for combat its serious problems of pollution (1,210 million euros, $ 1,630 million).
According to the official Xinhua Agency collect today, this means an increase of 40 percent on the combined budget of the past three years to tackle the problem, the Shanghai environmental protection Bureau announced.
Pollution has become one of the concerns and sources of discontent and social critique more accused in recent months in the big cities of the country, where increasingly more openly talks about the problem, even in the official media.
According to the Ministry of Chinese environmental protection, 40 percent of the 113 largest cities of China, each of them with millions of inhabitants, suffers from pollution levels above even the lax official bounds that mark the environmental laws of the Asian giant.
In Shanghai a thick haze often involves more than 15,000 skyscrapers of the city, whose inhabitants are often suffering dry coughing, irritation of eyes, breathing difficulties and fatigue, although they are accustomed to spend periods of heavy pollution.
China currently only covered by his readings of pollution particles PM10 type (between 10 and 2.5 microns in diameter) and leaves out of its measurements to smaller elements which can be very dangerous to the health of PM2.5 size 5 (with less than 2.5 microns in diameter).
With that size, about 30 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, the particles can stay in the depths of the lungs and even entering the bloodstream, which in the long term can cause a serious deterioration of health and even death of the affected.
Even using antiquated measurement systems (for PM10) in May 2011 Shanghai recorded the highest contamination rates in its history, with several days close to the maximum of 500 points in the imperfect Chinese scale.
Authorities have begun to react, and starting in June Shanghai will become the first city in the country which will also measure the particles PM2.5.
That is added that authorities invest in helping to thermal power plants to cut their emissions and to replace their fireplaces by cleaner power generation sources.
Also will be invested in applying in roads equivalent to the European Euro V emissions standards by 2014, which is supposed to be that it will draw from the streets to more than 60,000 highly polluting vehicles.
The formal obligation to comply with standards of China V, equivalent to the European Euro V emissions, reduce the amount of sulphurous oxides that release vehicles in nearly 80 per cent compared to China IV standards, that are imposed, theoretically, currently.
However, although officially Shanghai, Beijing and Canton impose these standards similar to Euro IV from 2008, in practice the 74 percent of local pollution comes from 280,000 vehicles (17 per cent of the total in the city) that meet even the 1st China for gasoline or the 3rd China for kerosene.
Figures recently provided by the official press itself follows vehicles that will not live with the Chinese rules for 2014 rondarán still the 220,000.
Authorities shanghainesas announced also that 25 per cent of PM2.5 particles, 5 of the city, which hosts the largest port in the world, comes from the engines for land vehicles and ships. EFE
