China’s Tibet to Monitor Vehicle Emissions in Lhasa

LHASA, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) – Southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region said on Thursday it will start monitoring vehicle exhaust in the capital, Lhasa, this year to prevent the growing number of private cars from tainting the plateau environment.

The plan is part of Tibet’s first survey of the sources of pollution, which will help the city develop pollution indices, Tibet’s environment chief, Zhang Yongze, said.

The number of private cars in Lhasa is growing by about 50 a day, according to the city’s vehicle administration. It said Lhasa, with a population of 400,000, had 70,000 motor vehicles as of last September, including 58,100 private cars.

The fast-growing fleet has changed commuting for Lhasa residents. Some office workers complain they now spend an average of 20 minutes more on their trips than four years ago.

Rising car ownership led city planners to build the plateau’s first underground car park. Also, starting this year, the vehicle tax that has been charged elsewhere in the country since 1994, was introduced in Lhasa.

Ahead of the pollution survey, Zhang said that his administration had located 1,081 sources of industrial waste, 1,686 sources of agricultural waste, 14,561 sources of domestic waste and six waste disposal facilities.

"Our next goal is to develop pollution indices," he told a regional meeting on environment protection.

Such indices, which will draw on interviews with residents, questionnaires and site surveys, will provide an important reference to policy-makers in the fields of environmental protection, industrial development and urban planning, said Gong Puguang, vice chairman of Tibet Autonomous Region.

The fast-growing car fleet, along with local economic and population growth, is threatening the plateau environment, though there is still no immediate sign of a pollution problem, said Zhang Yongze.

In Lhasa last year, 358 days were pollution-free, compared with the hard-won 246 "blue sky" days reported in Beijing, whose environmental protection efforts are almost always hampered by fog and sandstorms.

Zhang said Tibet started its crusade against pollution last year and had since blacklisted 30 major polluters including pharmaceutical companies and breweries.

"We’ll help them to reduce discharges and to recycle as much industrial waste as possible," Zhang said.