CHINA:WITH 10 days to go until the Beijing Olympics opens, the smog simply refuses to lift and the Games organisers are preparing emergency measures to clear the air before the world's biggest sporting spectacle, writes Clifford Coonanin Beijing
The traffic on the streets of Beijing is noticeably lighter and many of the big steelworks and coal-fired power stations have been silenced, but the pollution prevails. For years, authorities have been trying to clear the yellow-tinged smog masking the city, including a recent batch of measures, but all day yesterday the capital was enveloped in a haze that restricted visibility to just a couple of hundred metres.
"We will implement an emergency plan 48 hours in advance if the air quality deteriorates," said Li Xin, a senior engineer with the environmental bureau.
It is only a week since the government introduced an odd-even number plate system which bars more than one million of Beijing's 3.3 million passenger cars from the streets; now the government is having to consider banning 90 per cent of private cars and closing additional factories as a last-ditch bid to clear the skies before the games start on August 8th.
Beijing has already spent 120 billion yuan (€11 billion) on dealing with the pollution. Authorities said the haze was normal for the balmy July period and nothing to do with pollution.
"The air quality in Beijing during the Olympic Games will not affect the health of athletes," said Du Shaozhong, deputy director of Beijing's Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau. Athletes planning to bring respirators were only adding unnecessarily to their baggage weight, said Mr Du.
"A blue sky doesn't mean the air quality is good. If you take a shower, you can't see clearly because of the steam, but it doesn't mean it's pollution." He added that photographs were not a good indication of air quality.
"We can guarantee good air quality during the Olympics. We can guarantee a good environment for athletes. The International Olympic Committee and its medical commission have concluded that good air quality is fully guaranteed," said Mr Du.
However, with some athletes already training in Beijing and elsewhere in China, and others due to arrive in the coming days, the government's assurances are unlikely to assuage fears that China's promise of a "Green Games" is dead in the water.
Olympic gold medallist and world record holder Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia has pulled out of the Beijing marathon because he suffers from asthma and believes the pollution threatens his health.
Other teams have said they will wait until the last minute before taking their chances in the smog.
Greenpeace said Beijing's air quality was still well short of international guidelines and that particulates in the air were twice as high in Beijing as recommended by the World Health Organisation.
It is still not clear exactly how bad the air has to be for an event to be cancelled, despite warnings from Jacques Rogge, the head of the IOC, that poor air quality during the games could result in the suspension of endurance races. It is forbidden to bring in measuring equipment to independently verify air quality.
In Hong Kong, which will host the equestrian events, the air quality yesterday was nearly as bad as Beijing's.
There were also complaints from journalists about internet speeds, generally much slower in Beijing, often because of strict government controls as part of the "Great Firewall of China".