Stable autumn weather and burning of harvest stalks create blanket of smog across northern and eastern China
Farmers would sooner pay paltry fines for burning harvest waste than plough it back into their fields or collect it for recycling
It’s smog season again: humid but stable weather, with illegal burning of grain stalks in the countryside creating a blanket of grey sky right across northern and eastern China that meteorologists warn will last at least until Saturday night.
Beijing issued a blue warning for air pollution on Friday afternoon, warning the public to reduce outdoor activities and take precautions as the official air quality index reached 344 in the afternoon, meaning the air was severely polluted.
Levels of PM2.5 particulates considered most damaging to human health reached 294 micrograms per cubic metre in central Beijing, official monitoring showed. The World Health Organisation’s recommended safety level is 25mcg per cubic metre.
The vast blanket of pollution also covered Hebei, Henan and Shandong provinces in the north.
All 13 cities in Jiangsu province reported medium or heavy pollution, the Yangtze Evening News reported. Visibility in Xuzhou dropped to below 500 metres.
Rao Xiaoqin, of the National Meteorological Centre, said the stable conditions trapped pollutants in the air, and blamed rampant burning of grain stalks as a major cause of the smog.
A cold front forecast for Saturday is expected to clear the smog in Beijing and parts of Hebei, whereas the Shandong provincial meteorological department said the smog would last at least until Sunday.
But the smog may continue to linger in Jiangsu province as the cold front would be weakened along the way, the Yangtze Evening News reported, citing local forecasting.
Stable weather is common in autumn and winter, and in October, farmers burn grain stalks in the field after harvesting.
Environmental authorities have issued bans on burning stalks since the 1990s, and raised fines for local governments that failed in recent years to stop the practice.
Henan provincial authorities warned 10 county-level governments for overlooking the problem earlier this month.
The impoverished county of Taikang was fined 20 million yuan (HK$24 million) for allowing too much straw to be burned.
But the practice remains prevalent in the countryside as it is still seen as the most efficient way to get rid of the stalks.
Some farmers said the incentives to collect the straw for it to be recycled were far too low to cover their labour costs, so they would rather pay the fine – about 30 yuan – if they were caught.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection said in the first week of October that satellites found 376 cases of burning.
