Ningbo air quality ranks No.4

It is learned from Ningbo Environmental Protection Bureau that for the first quarter of 2014, Ningbo ranks No.4 in Zhejiang Province, only next to Zhoushan, Lishui and Taizhou, in terms of the comprehensive index for environmental air quality and excellence rate of air quality. Of the 74 monitored key cities in China, Ningbo ranks among the top 25 in terms of air quality.

According to the monitoring statistics for eight state-owned automatic atmosphere monitoring stations from Ningbo Environmental Monitoring Center, the air quality in the first quarter this year is slightly better than that of last year in terms of the Air Quality Index (AQI). In the first quarter, the central urban area saw 16 days for excellent air, 49 days for good air and 24 days for polluted air. The proportion of good and above air quality stands at 73%, three percentage point higher than the same period last year. Compared with last year, the average density of pollutants in the air declined steadily, with the average density for such major pollutants as SO2, NO2, PM10, PM2.5 and CO down by 25%, 6.5%, 8.7%, 4.9% and 15.4% respectively.

Also according to the statistics, there are 41 haze days in the first quarter of this year in the central urban area, accounting for 45.6% of the first quarter. In January, there were 19 haze days, accounting for 46.3% of the month. The monitoring results of PM2.5 in the first quarter in 11 cities in Zhejiang Province show that Ningbo ranks No.3 in terms of the polluting density of PM2.5 (from low to high). Due to the difficulty of the spread of the pollutants, the density of PM2.5 in other cities except Zhoushan and Lishui are higher than that in Ningbo.

According to the analysis, two main reasons account for the fact that the city's air quality in the first quarter of this year is slightly better than the same period of last year. On the one hand, this year witnessed less extreme weather than last year. And with the warmer weather coming earlier than the last year, the air had a better dispersion capacity. On the other hand, the air quality has been improved with the implementation of the air-cleaning campaign in the city. Last year, the emission of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides reduced by 10089 tons and 22084 tons respectively, and the effects were clear for the desulfuration and denitration projects and "no-fly zones". In addition, the dust pollution was under control to a certain degree in the construction sites and roads.

LINK:	http://en.nbwh.gov.cn/art/2014/5/5/art_1325_53929.html...
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