Air pollution in Shanghai after expo

A month after the World expo, Shanghai set records for air pollution that which could scare investors off. For this grand event, Shanghai order construction sites and factories to stop their work for 6 months,also they kept vehicles off streets to keep the air clean.

But since the expo ended on October 31, thick haze settled over the city and pollution triple as compared to the past few weeks.Gas leakages at oil refinery has caused foul smell in the air.The media reported that the air pollution in November has been the worst for 5 years.

"During the Expo, the government was very conscious about our air quality and wanting to give foreign visitors a good impression," said Lisa Jin, a student at East China Normal University in Shanghai.
"But after the Expo they have become lax and do not seem to care about the air quality."

On the contrary,Shanghai's environmental protection agency blamed the pollution on cold weather and stated that the months of November and December always bring bad air.However industry experts said the resumption of factory work and a significant increase of vehicles entering the city is the main factors that is causing air pollution.

"Will we see the blue skies days again in the near future? I seriously doubt it," Marc van der Chijs, co-founder of China's No.2 online video website Tudou, said recently on his blog.

Many residents look back wistfully at the clean air this year and wonder if they'll see it again. If Shanghai offically does not approach the problem it would surely threaten the views of people around the world about Shanghai.

Comments:
Shanghai should maintain the environmental standard of the city,even after the expo, and implement measures to reduce air pollution. Residents living in Shanghai would be badly affected and would cause a higher chance of contracting lung diseases. Therefore, they should cut down on the working hours of factories or constructions to reduce air pollution in the city. However,it would be a difficult task to set a limit or reduce vehicles entering the city.
Even though Shanghai is presented as China's most developed city, it also has given investors the impression of a badly air polluted city. Having to know this, investors might not want to invest or start business here as the problem would greatly affect the revenue earn. It would greatly affect the economy of the city and the views of others countries toward them.

Lin Zong Han