China’s Urban Issues

By Tim and George

What are the Issues?

• Air Pollution• BBC measured Beijing as having 134

micrograms of PM10 (particular matter) per cubic meter.

• Beijing Municipal environmental protection bureau measured it at 98

• But the WHO target level is 20

Solutions

• EU standard exhaust emission levels introduced in March 09

• Coal burning boilers being phased out

• Tax incentives for low polluting businesses, and air filtration companies e.g. Dantherm Filtration

What are the Issues?

• Water Pollution • Recent huge industrial and economic growth has

led to the pollution of almost all urban water supplies

• In a recent survey, 95% of all urban samples were polluted

• WHO puts water pollution related deaths in China at 100000 per year

Solutions

• Duoyuan Global Water, a china based water treatment equipment supplier, Is distributing water treatment equipment and filtration devises throughout 28 Chinese provinces.

• Ministry of construction has implemented 161 urban sewage disposal projects along Huaiha River

What are the issues?

• Traffic • Number of privately owned cars in Beijing is

rising by 1000 per day. Surpassing 1 million privately owned in Beijing alone

• The average amount of time lost in traffic jams is 3.25 hours per day

• China’s traffic administration departments lack a comprehensive management system

Solutions

• For the Olympics the government ordered 1.5 million cars off the road.

• Construction work has been slowed • Encouraged staggered work times• Work from home or greater use of public transport• One extreme idea is that even number plated cars

should be allowed to drive one day, and odd the next

• Increased taxes on car registration

What are the issues?

• Overcrowding

• 14,694 people per sq km compared to 4500 for London

• IN 1993 the Beijing Urban Comprehensive Plan – dilute the excessively concentrated downtown population and focus construction on suburban areas and satellite towns.

Solutions

• One Child Policy-Reduced the fertility rate from 2.9 to 1.7

• Qinghai-Tibet Railway stretches 1215 miles from Xining, the capital of west-central Qinghai province to Lhasa the capital of Tibet

• New SEZs• Attempts to move population away from the major

cities – inducing the ‘spread effect’