On its latest fight against pollution, the State Council shifts its focus on curbing soil pollution, reported China Daily.
The government’s Action Plan for Soil Pollution Prevention and Control, the nation’s third action plan to reduce pollution, targets to restore the quality of 90 percent of polluted farmlands by 2020.
By 2030, the government aims to cover 95 percent of said lands.
Compared to air and water pollution, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said that resolving soil pollution entails more time and requires bigger funding.
On a positive note, the ministry added, the plan could generate some 2 million jobs.
Released on May 31 and 10 chapters long, the action plan contains 231 measures that will serve as guide in drafting laws to tackle pollution.
The first action plan presented in 2013 dealt with air pollution. The second one followed in 2015, concentrating on water pollution.
According to Chen Jining, the head of the Minister of Environmental Protection, 3.33 million hectares of arable land in the country register pollution levels well above average, reported Shanghai Daily.
Lan Hong, an environment professor at Renmin University of China in Beijing, said that no less than 6 trillion yuan should be apportioned to restore polluted lands.
“It would take 300,000 yuan per hectare of land polluted by heavy metals,” said Lan.
In 2015, the government spent 2.8 billion yuan to combat pollution in 30 prefecture-level cities.
Regular use of herbicides or weedkillers, insecticides and fungicides--all categorized as pesticides--contribute to soil pollution.
Metals acting as major soil pollutants include antimony (found in rubber, ceramics, metal products, and paint), lead (fuel, batteries, and automobile parts), selenium (plastics and glass), silver (photographic products) and thallium (electronic products), as enumerated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Ying Zhang, author of “Soil Quality in China – Policy Implications” published in Aug. 2014 by Europe China Research and Advice Network and funded by the European Union, listed in the said publication the following causes of soil pollution: “waste gas, wastewater, waste residue discharge of industrial and mining enterprises . . . inappropriate farmers’ agricultural activities, e.g., sewage irrigation and overuse of fertilizer and pesticide.”
Ying also wrote that based from the national survey on soil pollution conducted by the government in 2005 and 2013, the southern central and southwestern regions of the country suffered from extensive heavy metal pollution.