China has released an ambitious plan to make 90 per cent of its polluted agricultural land “safely usable” within four years, as it addresses a longtime problem that affects food security and public health.
A survey published in 2014 estimated that 20 per cent of China’s arable land was contaminated by decades of unregulated metal smelting, mining and fertiliser manufacturing. The clean-up bill could reach $1tn, by some estimates.
While Beijing has promised to tackle soil pollution for some time, it originally planned to do so after addressing the more visible problems of air and water pollution. However, experts have realised that contamination leeching into the soil from abandoned industrial sites will continue to undermine water quality unless tackled at the same time.