With people spending more time in Nanjing this year than ever before, many have also noticed that the city’s skies have been remarkably clear for the bulk of 2020. It’s no illusion, and the industrial shutdown of early this year has very little to do with it.
As of 30 November, Nanjing had accumulated 281 days with good air quality in 2020 to date, fulfilling the annual target issued by the Jiangsu Provincial Government 1 month ahead of schedule.
Furthermore, there have this year been 95 days whereby weather conditions have met the criteria for the “crystal sky” definition, meaning excellent air quality.
This represents an increase of 43 days over the same period last year. With more and more such days, Nanjing’s average concentration of PM2.5 fell to 28.7 μg per cubic metre, representing a year-on-year decrease of 25.5 percent.
Zhou Xuhai, Director of the Atmospheric Department in the Nanjing Ecological Environment Bureau, said that the main indicators for air pollutants in Nanjing in 2020 are at their lowest concentration levels since the implementation of new national air quality standards in 2013.
The increased number of Nanjing days with good air quality represents a net increase of 19 percentage points over 5 years ago; 64.4 percent in 2015 compared to 83.8 percent in 2020.
Over the same period, average annual concentration of PM2.5 decreased from 54 μg per cubic metre in 2015 to today’s 28.7 μg, a net decrease of 46.9 percent, reports the Yangtze Evening News.
Zhou also said that the extra long rainy season in Nanjing from June to July of this year contributed a lot to the air quality, but the reduction, precision and scientific management of air quality in Nanjing are the main factors.
As a result, terms such as ”fog cannon truck” and “dust suppression enclosure spray” have become household names, terms that respectively refer to the trucks with cannons on their back that spray water into the atmosphere to water Nanjing’s many tress and the miniature water sprays mounted on top of construction site fencing that help enormously to prevent dust reaching the atmosphere.
With clear skies now commonplace, most locals hardly give them a second thought. But back when the ubiquitous grey China smog started to lift and the first sunsets appeared, citizens would stop en masse to take photos of that they had never seen before, commenting on the fluffy clouds as a child does a birthday present.
