The Ministry of Environmental Protection has released figures on the air quality of 74 monitored cities nationwide for the first 10 months of this year. Over half of the ten most polluted Chinese cities were in Hebei province.
The government agencies of Hebei have made great efforts to resolve the pollution problem as their positions in government may be jeopardized if they fail to present any solutions.
However, resolving the issue is no easy task due to large emissions of pollutants, an unfavorable geographical position that makes gas diffusion difficult, and poor management of emissions, according to the Chinese language China Economic Weekly.
Mr Zhou Benshun secretary of the provincial committee of the Communist Party of China said that "The Beijing-Tianjin-Heibei region and its nearby areas are the most polluted parts of China, and Hebei should take the bulk of the responsibility compared with Beijing and Tianjin.'
The weekly reported that pressure to ease the province's pollution also came from cities nearby. A research report showed that Beijing emitted 70% of the country's greenhouse gases, while 30% of its pollutants came from cities nearby.
Experts noted that all cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region need to control their air pollution, but Hebei has to shoulder the greatest responsibility.
The weekly pointed out that the pollution was mainly caused by the iron and steel industry, which sustains Hebei's economy.
As of 2012, 148 steel mills were registered in Hebei, with total assets reaching CNY 957 billion (USD 157.5 billion), with more than 610,000 people employed by them. The added value of the industry in 2012 was recorded at CNY 386.5 billion (USD 63.6 billion), which accounted for 13.9% of the total GDP that year.
The industry also contributed tax payments of CNY 40.5 billion (USD 6.6 billion), which was worth 11.6% of the Hebei government's total financial income in 2012.