Clearer rules sought to fight soil pollution
Print Edition
The vast swathes of polluted land and contaminated ground water caused by decades of reckless development has left its mark on China. It is a threat that can no longer be ignored.
Officially, 16 percent of China’s soil and nearly 20 percent of farmland is polluted, however, ecologists warn, this may just be the tip of the iceberg.
In 2014, the Qingyuan City government, in the southern province of Guangdong, launched a pilot project to treat soil contaminated by heavy metals in Longtang Township, which was a hub for processing scrap metal for over 20 years.
After experimenting with farming and construction land “remarkable results” were observed, said Fang Xiaohang, a senior engineer with the South China Institute of Environmental Science, which provided technical support for the project.
Government-backed initiatives, like the one in Longtang, have cropped up across the country, as soil pollution, contaminated crops, water and air become just too big to ignore.
During yesterday’s National Land Day, ecologists are calling for clearer rules and supportive measures to ensure the success of land treatment projects: Its time to sow the seeds of change.
Although many developed countries started to address soil pollution decades ago, China’s own drive to clean up its own act is in its infancy.
“The government has spent heavily on research, and technology is developing rapidly,” said Song Yun, chief engineer of the Environmental Protection Research Institute of Light Industry.
At the experiment sites in Longtang, chemicals have been used to stabilize heavy metals and reduce their activity on polluted land. Before the project, samples of soil showed it contained worrying amounts of copper and 10 times more lead than the national standard.
After remediation, Fang said, soil samples from one patch of land showed active heavy metal content was down by more than 50 percent, and rice grown on another plot was safe for consumption.
“Restoring farmland with a focus on ensuring the soil is suitable for growing crops, is much more difficult than treating land intended for construction,” Song said.
In addition, the high cost of treating polluted farmland, which can soar into the tens of thousands of dollars per hectare, is a huge burden on the government, Song said.
“A safe and inexpensive method to treat heavy metals on construction sites is to use microorganisms. It’s popular abroad, but not in China. Why? Real estate developers don’t want to wait for three months to a year needed to see results,” he said.
China’s ability to treat polluted groundwater lags far behind that of its more developed peers, he said. “Meaning, once treated, soil is very likely to be contaminated by polluted groundwater again.”
Compared with the technological challenges, the land treatment industry is struggling to grow due to a lack of rules to regulate the sector.
In China, it is hard to hold someone responsible for soil pollution, due to frequent transfer of company ownership.
In sharp contrast to the “polluters pay” principal widely adopted around the world, it is the state and developers that must foot the bill here.
However, many are hopeful that a law on soil pollution, which is expected to be rolled out by 2017, could clear up some of these sticking points.
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