Zhao Liang's volunteers gather evidence for oversight of polluters, engage in dialogue. Hou Liqiang reports.

Zhao Liang (standing), Airman volunteers and villagers during field research in Baishe village, Shaanxi province, in August, 2023. (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

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When recalling the early days of Airman, an NGO he initiated in 2014 that mainly targets air pollution, Zhao Liang has many vivid memories of the struggles he faced.

With only a few volunteers to help, he often worked alone with nothing else but "a sense of smell, a pair of eyes and a smartphone". His enthusiasm, however, was always high.

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region was often shrouded by heavy smog back then, and there were many concerns about where the air pollutants were coming from, the 38-year-old recalled.

Some experts believed that smokestack industries in Hebei province were to blame, as they consumed a lot of coal. Zhao decided to go to Hebei to conduct air-quality surveys himself to see if that was true.

Airman volunteers discuss winter heating with residents of Nanzuo village, Shaanxi, after their traditional coal stoves were replaced with cleaner gas and electric heating. (PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

After doing some online research he went to Wuan county in Hebei, where many steel processing factories were located. On arrival, he immediately felt the physical effects of the heavy air pollution.

When talking with residents, he was told that some factories illegally emitted pollutants under the cover of darkness. Zhao decided to collect some samples as evidence so he could make a report to local environmental authorities.

It was wheat harvest time and the temperature at night was mild, so he lay on a pile of wheat in farmland to observe a steel plant to see whether it was emitting pollutants at night. "My family grew wheat when I was a child, so I didn't find it difficult to adapt to such conditions," he said with a smile.

As darkness fell, there was an increase in emissions from the plant. After noticing some dust on his hands, Zhao decided to spend the entire night in the field. He woke up in the morning with his face covered in soot and mosquito bites all over his body.

"But I was very excited, as I had collected evidence that showed the plant was illegally emitting at night," he said.

He went to the local environmental bureau to report the violation. "Officials at the bureau were shocked. They attached great importance to the issue. A team headed by a deputy head of the bureau was then dispatched to investigate other violations," Zhao said, adding the factory was eventually fined.

Environmental inspectors check the smoke emissions of a barbecue shop in Huai'an, Jiangsu province, on Nov 11, 2023. (ZHAO QIRUI / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Dirty work

Over the years, Zhao and his NGO volunteers have encountered multiple threats while conducting surveys. Factory security guards have set their dogs on them to deter them from photographing evidence, while others have tried to grab their phones.

The team members eventually turned to advanced technologies to help them better conduct their surveys, which also reduced the number of threats they encountered.

In 2017, Airman joined a team of experts investigating a sulfur dioxide pollution scandal in Linfen, Shanxi province. They provided an independent report on the hazardous contamination based on aerial footage taken by drones and data processing technologies.

The investigation led to senior officials in Linfen being summoned by the country's top environmental watchdog, and approval of new projects in the city being suspended.

To date, Airman has reported over 1,500 violations to environmental authorities. Many of the cases were also reported to the country's high-profile central environmental inspection team, Zhao said.

Led by ministerial-level officials, the inspection team reports to a central group headed by a vice-premier of the State Council, China's Cabinet.

Zhao said his NGO has played a role in the rectification of 600 to 800 major environmental violations.

Airman has also seen the number of its volunteers expand to over 500 as it strives to address air pollution-related violations in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Fenhe-Weihe Plain area that stretches across Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan provinces. Both are key regions for air pollution control.

In 2019 in Hancheng, Shaanxi, frequent explosions at a quarry caused noise pollution and sent heavy clouds of dust into the air. The dust level was so severe it significantly affected the growth of vast stretches of white mulberry trees, causing farmers heavy economic losses, Zhao recalled.

Airman invited media to join its inspection of the location. After the violation was exposed by the invited media, the quarry was shut down and local authorities also took measures to rehabilitate the damaged agricultural areas, Zhao said.

After the actions, farmers saw an increase in their incomes as the output from the mulberry trees rose, he added.

"A farmer who ran a horse-breeding farm called me after the shutdown. He said the things we did were of great significance and had helped them solve a big problem, and he wanted to join Airman as a volunteer," he said.

A giant air-supported membrane structure covering an area of 4,240 square meters is erected at a construction site in Beijing to prevent dust raised during construction work from polluting the air. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

Time to cooperate

Zhao said he has found companies and governments increasingly open to NGOs such as his.

For example, the NGO and Longmen Steel Co Ltd in Hancheng had been in opposition to each other for years. Since 2016, Airman had reported company violations to the central environmental inspection body and the local environmental authority several times, he said.

However, in April the company invited the NGO to visit its plant. A group consisting of Airman volunteers and representatives of other NGOs Airman had invited inspected the company's entire production process, he said.

"Following our consistent concerns about this company for over seven years, it finally opened its doors to us. I think this is a significant milestone," he said. "Instead of confronting each other, we sought to build dialogue."

After the visit, the local environmental bureau invited Airman to participate in a symposium, hoping the NGO would help build a green development model for a Longmen Steel industrial park.

Hancheng city officials, executives of the industrial park, company representatives, and grassroots officials took part in the symposium.

"We took the opportunity provided by the symposium to reach a consensus to build up a governance mode that features multiple parties," Zhao said.

"Previously, our attention was mainly focused on individual violations scattered across different areas. We found violations and then reported them to authorities."

He said the NGO now focuses on a key region and strives to address the problem "to the best of our capability".

"We seek to connect different resources and establish a joint environmental governance mode," he said.

Contact the writer at houliqiang@chinadaily.com.cn