The Action Plan for Soil Pollution Prevention and Control was unveiled on Tuesday by China's State Council. After being discussed for years, the puzzle of how to tackle soil contamination, when there had been a lack of legal definition and supervision, has finally embraced a mandatory timetable.
There are 10 specific areas for action outlined in the scheme, which aims to curb China's worsening soil pollution by 2020 and take soil pollution risks under comprehensive control by 2030. At the same time, the plan calls to ensure 95 percent of contaminated land is safe by then, and to create a virtuous cycle in the ecosystem by 2050.
The newly released tasks include carrying out surveys on soil pollution, promoting legislation on soil pollution prevention and control, investing more in research over environmental protection, and more significantly, setting up stricter rules for the officials' accountability system. Leaders of local governments will undergo routine checks over their actions on addressing contaminated soil. Those who fail to fulfill the tasks will face disciplinary punishment or even criminal responsibility, if they ever cross the legal line by cheating or presenting false data.
China has long had legislation on water and air pollution, but no law has ever been established for polluted lands until now. Not long ago, there was uproar when about 500 students from Changzhou Foreign Languages School in Jiangsu Province were diagnosed with a range of ailments, a few as severe as leukemia, allegedly because of soil contamination caused by nearby chemical plants.
Based on the latest figures from China's Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Land and Resources, 16.1 percent of China's surveyed land is polluted by heavy metals, including cadmium, arsenic, lead and mercury. According to media reports, China's use of fertilizer accounted for around 35 percent of total global consumption, which also contributes to soil pollution.
China is known for setting specific goals when it comes to investment in the economy, education, and technology, while in terms of environmental protection, our objectives tended to be blurred and incomplete. But now, with the implementation of the new action plan against soil pollution, the country's overall environmental protection projects, including air, water and soil have now been officially established.
The blueprint, especially monitoring how officials deal with soil issues, mirrors the government's determination to stop paying a price for growth, bid goodbye to "GDP worship," and safeguard healthy living conditions for future generations. It is a starting point for China to halt and even reverse the practice of develop first, deal with pollution later. It is a signal that the nation's evaluation system will shift its focus toward the construction of an ecological civilization.