Beijing Creates New Environmental Police Squad To Curb Illegal Burning In The City

Beijing officials have announced a new environmental police squad to curb illegal burning in the city, in an effort to deal with the issue of persistent heavy smog in the country.

The country's capital was covered in heavy smog for some winter days and was on the "orange" smog alert - the second highest warning level last week, with the PM2.5 rising above 500 micrograms per cu m. The smog was so heavy that the city and surrounding regions were in partial darkness.

The smog which is majorly caused by air pollution brought so many activities to a halt including traffic jams and cancelling or delay of flight.

However, China took active steps in previous years to minimize the burning of fossil fuels which contribute to the smog with Beijing reducing the total coal consumption to below 10 million tonnes in 2016 from 23 million in 2013.

The city also closed 335 coal-burning, polluting factories and ordered 424,000 old, high-emitting vehicles off the streets last year. But the efforts have been made futile by official who violate order. The environmental ministry reported last week that its inspection teams found companies resuming production despite a government ban.

The enforcement of the ban remains an issue. Xinhua, the state's official news agency reported that, Beijing's acting mayor, Cai Qi, said during a meeting on Saturday that the force would target garbage incineration, open-air barbecues and the burning of wood and other biomass, according to ABC News.

He announced several other measures such as cutting down the use of coal by 30 percent this year and also shutting down 500 high polluting factories and upgrading 2,500 others. Up to 300,000 additional high emitting vehicles will be restricted from entering the country's capital starting next month, according to Yahoo.

The acting mayor also blamed polluting activities like burning garbage or wood on the result of loose supervision and weak law enforcement.

China's air pollution is caused by its thousands of coal-burning factories. The country is world's largest producer and consumer of coal.

The new environmental police squad aims to ensure that companies follow the laid down rules which will help the government on its war on pollution thus increasing overall air quality across the country.