Jinchengjiang tops Guangxi in good air quality rate

The rate of good air quality of Jinchengjiang district in Hechi reached 97.8 percent in 2019, according to the Department of Ecology and Environment of Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, ranking first in the region.

This is the first time that an inland area in Guangxi has topped the good air quality rate since records began.

Jinchengjiang has been devoted to improving its environment over the past few decades.

In 2005, there were more than 10 smelting plants, four cement mills, and over 20 quarries around the district, producing large emissions of sulfur dioxide and smoke dust.

All of the quarries and one cement mill were shut down in 2006 to control environmental pollution, while the smelting plants and the three other cement mills installed online monitoring equipment to monitor their pollutant discharge in real time.

Since 2012, a total of 96 heavy metal smelting enterprises in Jinchengjiang were closed successively.

According to Huang He, deputy director of the bureau of ecology and environment of Hechi, all the smelting enterprises around Jinchengjiang were shut down or moved out of the urban area by June 2017, as well as the three cement mills.

In addition, two online monitoring points were set up in Jinchengjiang to carry out real time monitoring of air pollutants, covering sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone, PM2.5, and PM10.

"More than a decade ago, the river, which had a cement mill right in front and several smelting plants nearby, often smelt foul," said a resident surnamed Wu in Jinchengjiang. "But now it's different. Not only is the air fresh, but the water is also clear."