Severe soil pollution blights arable land

Lack of public awareness of 'invisible' contamination from heavy metals

Experts warned of the severity of heavy metal contamination in China's arable lands and urged that data on national soil pollution be made available as quickly as possible, according to a new blue book released on Saturday.

Co-released by the Social Sciences Academic Press and the Ministry of Land and Resources, the blue book states that some 12 million tons of grain are polluted by heavy metals every year in China, equal to the amount of food needed for 40 million people, according to China News Service.

About 3.3 million hectares of arable land is moderately or heavily polluted. Most of this land is close to major cities or along major traffic arteries. Rivers are also found to be heavily polluted by heavy metals and organic pollutants, according to the report.

Chen Nengchang, a research fellow with the Guangdong Institute of Eco-environment and Soil Sciences, told the Global Times that leaded petrol, which has been banned in China since 2000, and worn-out tires can result in metal contamination of land within 50 meters of roads, while mines and smelters located in upper rivers can cause pollution in a whole delta.

"Cadmium contamination is the most serious issue faced by China, as it's easier to enter the human body. Patients suffer from a lot of pain as cadmium causes softening of bones," said Chen.

Dong Zhengwei, a Beijing-based lawyer, said that there is still a lack of public awareness about the severity of the "invisible" soil pollution, despite the results of the first national soil pollution survey released in April after he applied to the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) in 2013 for information disclosure.

According to the survey, conducted from 2005 to 2013, 19.4 percent of the arable land of the 6.3 million square kilometers of investigated land across the Chinese mainland was contaminated.

Inorganic materials such as cadmium contaminate about 82.8 percent of the polluted land.

Experts noted that the figures in the blue book have been published before and they urged for more timely disclosure of soil pollution monitoring information.

"The situation may have already worsened as there is no specific law for supervision and urbanization is leaping forward," Dong said.

The MEP formed a special group responsible for drafting a law on land environment protection, while projects on soil rehabilitation will be carried out in regions that have serious soil pollution problems, with each project funded with more than 1 billion yuan (163 million).

Chen urged that a supervisory system on disposal of contaminated grain be set up to ensure the nation's food safety.

Besides contamination, the blue book noted that salinization and desertification encroached up to 134 million hectares of land and another 356 million hectares suffered water loss and soil erosion.

About 7.46 million hectares of land has been destroyed because of construction and natural disasters.