Shanghai studies traffic congestion charge to control pollution

Eco-Business: Shanghai, which inaugurated a free trade zone last month and is targeting to become a global financial center, is studying whether to impose a traffic congestion charge as part of a broader plan to fight pollution.

A congestion charge is one of the measures being considered as part of a white paper on transportation, Gao Yiyi, an official with the Shanghai Municipal Transport and Port Authority, said today at a joint departmental briefing. The city also pledged to cut levels of PM2.5 — the most damaging particulate matter — by 20 percent by 2017 from last year’s levels, according to the environmental protection bureau.

“Vehicles are a big reason behind the increase in PM2.5 and pollution levels and this is an area of a lot of public concern,” Gao said. “Heavy polluting vehicles is an area where we will strongly control.”

If implemented, Shanghai would be the first in China to adopt road pricing for motorists, following Singapore and London, which charge drivers more for traveling into the city center at peak hours. Shanghai was the first in China to put a cap on the number of new vehicles, distributing the license plates by auction. Other cities have also mooted imposing a congestion charge.

Shanghai’s plan follows a move by Beijing, which this week announced rules that will sharply reduce the number of government and private vehicles on the roads and shut schools when there are forecasts of serious pollution for three consecutive days. Premier Li Keqiang has pledged a cleanup that includes cutting coal consumption, shutting steel plants and controlling the number of cars...

Traffic in the Huangpu District, Shanghai, shot by BrokenSphere, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license 

Hydropower poses a threat to Shanghai water

Space Daily via UPI:  Extensive hydropower development in the upper reaches of China's Yangtze River poses a threat to the future safety of Shanghai's water supply, says a new study.

The report, by Yangtze River Fishery Resources Committee under the Ministry of Agriculture and World Wide Fund for Nature, known as WWF, is based on a scientific expedition by 32 researchers from government agencies and NGOs through five provincial regions carried out in June.

"One of the most direct consequences for Shanghai is the reduction of the total amount of fresh water that flows from the upper reaches," Yong Yi, a project manager at WWF's Shanghai office, was quoted as saying by the Global Times. "This will cause water safety problems for Shanghai, because the coastal city will suffer from seawater intrusion."

As part of China's energy plan, more than 25 hydropower stations are planned along the 1,434-mile long Jinsha River, one of the major headwaters of the Yangtze. The facilities will be about 62 miles apart and together will supply power equivalent to four times the amount of China's massive Three Gorges Dam project, the world's largest power station that has an installed capacity 22,500 megawatts....

A NASA view from space of the Three Gorges Dam

Shanghai river's dead pig total approaches 15,000

Seed Daily: The number of dead pigs found in a river which runs through Shanghai had reached nearly 15,000, officials and reports said Tuesday, as a newspaper claimed the government was concealing the true tally.

The images of dead pigs in China's commercial hub have proved a huge embarrassment for the city, which is seeking to become an international financial centre.

Shanghai city workers retrieved 369 bodies from the Huangpu River on Monday, bringing the municipality's total to 10,164 since the first were found earlier this month, the city government said in a statement.

Jiaxing in neighbouring Zhejiang province, whose farmers are accused by Shanghai of dumping the pigs into the river upstream, had found another 4,664 dead pigs, media reports said Tuesday.

But the Xiao Xiang Morning Herald, based in the central province of Hunan, quoted residents of Xinfeng in Jiaxing as estimating more than 10,000 pigs had been recovered from the water there….

The Huangpu River in Shanghai, shot by Jakub Hałun, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license