An expert from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) said yesterday that
if the weather does not change dramatically in the next three days, Beijing will
have a "fairly good" level of air quality on Friday, the opening day of the
Olympics.It might rain today and tomorrow, said Wang Zifa, a researcher with the
Institute of Atmospheric Physics of CAS, a government research organization.
Using a multi-model system, Wang said he was able to forecast Beijing's air
quality 72 hours ahead.
He said that even if the air is humid and still on Friday, the city is
unlikely to have heavy pollution. "I think the city's comprehensive and strict
measures to control pollution have paid off," he said
The capital's air quality on Tuesday was categorized as "fairly good" with an
average pollution index from 27 monitoring stations standing at 88, slightly
higher than the 83 recorded on Monday.
A pollution reading below 50 is classed as "excellent," 51 to 100 "fairly
good," 101 to 200 "slightly polluted," 201 to 300 "poor" and over 301 is
"hazardous," according to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Environmental
Protection.
The deputy director of the bureau, Du Shaozhong, said that Beijing had three
days with "excellent" air quality and two days with "fairly good" air quality so
far this month.
He said the Ministry of Environmental Protection has issued emergency plans
for "extremely adverse weather conditions". However, the ministry did not see
any need to activate this plan since the weather has not been "extremely
adverse" so far.
Environmental experts said in the next few days, Beijing will have wind
coming from the south. They suggested that southern neighboring areas including
Baoding and Langfang in Hebei Province and Tianjin should strengthen pollution
controls.
As of Tuesday, Beijing had 154 days with fairly good or excellent air
quality, accounting for 70.6 percent of the days in 2008.
