Society

Residents freeze so city can save energy

By Quan Li (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-01-12 15:22

Tens of thousands of residents in a central China city will have to endure a freezing winter without heating after their supply was cut off to meet energy saving targets, the Beijing News reported on Wednesday.

Temperatures in Linzhou, Henan province had already plunged below -10C when the local government closed one of the towers supplying heat to the city’s more than one million residents.

Staff answering the Mayor’s hotline confirmed the city would not recover its winter heating supply and customers would receive a full refund of expenses.

The problem started after a local coal-fired plant which supplies power to the city was closed down on Jan 5 to meet the government’s energy conservation goals.

An area as large as 200,000 square meters of the city has been affected by the cuts with some major schools and hospitals firing up their own boilers to stay warm.

According to an urgent notice issued by the National Development and Reform Commission in September 2010, the goal of energy conservation and emission reduction should not be met at the expense of public interests, let alone restricting the electricity and heating consumption of local residents.

Building an energy-saving and eco-friendly society is a major target of the 11th Five-Year Plan –a  guideline for China's economic development from 2006 to 2010.