Beijing is likely to be dropped from the world's top 10 polluted cities as the city will enjoy much more fresh air, clean water in the coming five years.

Wang Guangtao, vice-mayor of Beijing, announced here Friday that under a five-year pollution control plan, residents in Beijing will enjoy fresh air and blue skies for at least 255 days each year by 2005, about 91 days more than 2000.

"The environment in Beijing will be significantly improved by 2005 and the living quality of the 12 million residents will also been greatly lifted as a result," said the vice-mayor, who is in charge of the city's environmental protection and pollution control.

Pollution control will be the focal point of the city's environmental management under the city's proposed plan for the 2001- 2005 period.

Beijing, which has become the largest natural gas consumer in China recently, also plans to use more natural gas, electricity and other clean energy in the coming five years.

The clean energy will account for over 75 percent of the total energy consumed, he said.

Wang said it is expected that Beijing will consume 3 billion cubic meters of natural gas, compared to about 1 billion cubic meters in 2000.

It is expected that about 90 percent of the sewage water will be treated before it is discharged by 2007, up 45 percentage points over 2000.

Industrial pollution, once one of the major environmental problems facing Beijing, has largely been brought under control.

By last May, over 5,000 industrial firms in Beijing that discharged pollutants have met the pollutant discharge standards set by the local government.

In the Capital Iron and Steel Company, which used to be a major polluter of air in Beijing, steel production has given way to chip production and other less polluting production as the company has turned to the development of high-technology products.

The company has announced recently that non-steel production, or high-tech products including chips, has accounted for half of the company's output.

Many polluting firms involving metallurgical, power, building material and chemical ones, have or are being forced to move out of the city itself, and give way to the construction of business or college student apartments.

The vice-mayor said the city plans to cut the total amount of pollutant discharge by 30 percent by 2005.

During the past two years, Beijing has invested nearly 30 billion yuan in environmental protection and pollution control projects.

The city has announced that from the period 1998 to 2007, more than over 100 billion yuan will be allocated for environment improvement and pollution control.

Beijing also plans to become much greener by 2005.

It is expected to have more than 30 nature reserves and forest coverage rate in the hilly part of rural Beijing will be above 70 percent, and a quarter of the plain rural part of Beijing will be covered by trees, said the vice-mayor.

Statistics on the quality of air has shown that it has taken Beijing two years to reach the same air pollution control targets on which Tokyo, London and Paris spent seven years, said Wang.

"Although we started a bit late, we will certainly catch up," said the vice-mayor.

(People's Daily 01/13/01)