Beating Beijing's pollution getting tougher - official

BEIJING, Jan 24 (Reuters) Beijing had ''good air'' on nearly two thirds of days last year but progress on beating pollution will be more difficult in the 20 months until the Olympics, a city official said today.

When it bid to host the Olympics, Beijing made commitments to improve the environment in the city and one of the three pillars of the Games is ''Green Olympics''.

The environment department in the notoriously smoggy Chinese capital assesses air quality on a daily basis and on their scale of particulate matter density, 241 days last year had acceptable pollution levels.

Although many Beijing residents scoff at the statistics, environment chief Shi Hanmin said, even if there were tough challenges ahead, it was a vast improvement on 1998 when there were just 100 ''blue sky'' days.

''I face so many challenges,'' Shi told a news conference.

''Although we have improved air quality for the last eight years, we cannot be complacent.'' The city spent 20 billion yuan ( BEIJING, Jan 24 (Reuters) Beijing had ''good air'' on nearly two thirds of days last year but progress on beating pollution will be more difficult in the 20 months until the Olympics, a city official said today.

When it bid to host the Olympics, Beijing made commitments to improve the environment in the city and one of the three pillars of the Games is ''Green Olympics''.

The environment department in the notoriously smoggy Chinese capital assesses air quality on a daily basis and on their scale of particulate matter density, 241 days last year had acceptable pollution levels.

Although many Beijing residents scoff at the statistics, environment chief Shi Hanmin said, even if there were tough challenges ahead, it was a vast improvement on 1998 when there were just 100 ''blue sky'' days.

''I face so many challenges,'' Shi told a news conference.

''Although we have improved air quality for the last eight years, we cannot be complacent.'' The city spent 20 billion yuan ($2.57 billion) fighting pollution last year, taking 15,000 old taxis and 3,000 old buses off the road, closing down a large chemical factory and starting the process of moving a huge steel plant to neighbouring Hebei province.

The emissions from five large power stations in the city have been treated to remove pollutants and dust, while 15,000 industrial boilers in the city centre have been upgraded.

Further reductions of 10 percent in the sulphur dioxide levels and 245 ''good air'' days had been targeted for 2007, Shi said.

''We have already finished the easy tasks and now we face the most difficult challenges,'' he added. ''The progress will be slower from now on.

''We have made some achievements but we have a long way before we have reached international standards on air and noise quality.'' Reuters PM GC1623 .57 billion) fighting pollution last year, taking 15,000 old taxis and 3,000 old buses off the road, closing down a large chemical factory and starting the process of moving a huge steel plant to neighbouring Hebei province.

The emissions from five large power stations in the city have been treated to remove pollutants and dust, while 15,000 industrial boilers in the city centre have been upgraded.

Further reductions of 10 percent in the sulphur dioxide levels and 245 ''good air'' days had been targeted for 2007, Shi said.

''We have already finished the easy tasks and now we face the most difficult challenges,'' he added. ''The progress will be slower from now on.

''We have made some achievements but we have a long way before we have reached international standards on air and noise quality.'' Reuters PM GC1623