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TONGCHUAN, SHAANXI PROVINCE - Tongchuan is a case study of a city that, with a few simple, effective measures, significantly improved its air quality in a short time. Dubbed “Coal City” because it produces 30% of resource-rich Shaanxi Province’s total coal production, Tongchuan once had such tainted air that it showed on satellite pictures as a dark smudge.

Tongchuan has prospered as a major producer of coal, cement, and chemicals, but its 800,000 residents have paid a heavy environmental price.

“We had pollution in three colors—black from the coal, gray from the cement, and yellow from the soil blown in from the surrounding countryside,” recalls one official. “Most days all we could see was a black sky.”

Tongchuan’s location in a valley of the arid Loess Plateau also makes it difficult for its polluted air to disperse.

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However, thanks to an environmental project that was financed by a US$22 million loan from ADB, Tongchuan has dramatically improved air quality in two ways. First, it reduced coal burning by supplying residents with natural gas for cooking. Second, it installed ash-removal technology in the city’s biggest cement plant and closed some of the smaller cement factories.

Today, Xue Yanqing, Director of Tongchuan’s Environment Protection Bureau, points upward and says, “Look at the blue sky. With help from ADB, we have cut pollution by 50%.”

Switching domestic users from coal to natural gas involved piping in the clean fuel from a gas field 480 kilometer (km) away—under a separate project completed in 1997—to a distribution center with a capacity of 40 million cubic meters. Since this project came onstream in 1999, more than 33,000 households—two thirds of the population—are cooking with natural gas. More residents will be connected to the system in time.

Residents say the change has benefited them in many ways. “Cooking with coal took so much time and effort, it dirtied the kitchen and it gave me a cough,” says grandmother Zhang Yangqin as she bustles around her kitchen in Wangyi district. “Using natural gas is more convenient, cleaner, and 10% cheaper.”

Her husband, Sun Qing Ming, says, “When we used coal, I had a chronic respiratory problem and had to go to hospital for treatment. It cleared up after we started using gas.”

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On the industrial front, ADB financed a subproject to install an ash-removal system in the city’s largest cement plant. Although located just outside the city, the giant Shaanxi Qinling Cement Company spewed ash for miles around and was the city’s single biggest polluter. State-of-the art German technology was installed to remove the ash—which is recycled—instead of being released into the environment. Now, even though cement production has risen, the white puffs above the plant are steam, not ash.

“They used to have a saying here. On sunny days, the workers were covered in dust and on rainy days it was mud,” says Xu Jianchi, Director of the company’s Environment Protection Office. “People wore dark shirts because a white one would turn black. Now people can wear light-colored shirts.”

Besides the workers, farmers and nearby residents have also gained.

Within a short distance of the cement plant, farmer Lei Zhanwen shares his story. “This field used to be covered in ash. Crops took longer to grow and yields were lower. White turnips came out black, so people didn’t want to buy them. Today, the turnips are white again, and I can grow vegetables that I couldn’t grow before, such as woshun (lettuce).”

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