Land reported to be heavily tainted
June 28, 2012 Category Environment, Pollution
In many Chinese cities, where countless factories once stood, now there are towering office blocks, luxury apartments and underground shopping malls. The air, usually, is cleaner and there are parks and tree-lined roads. But in the soil, and in the water table lurk hidden dangers. The factories may have closed or moved away, but they left the ground where they once stood soaked with toxic chemicals. Millions of people now live on tainted land – and most of them know nothing about it. The government has done a nationwide survey to estimate the extent of the problem and a CNY100 billion five-year remediation plan will follow the survey, which found that the total contaminated land covers about 200,000 square kilometers – twice the size of Iceland. More than a dozen regions, including the Beijing and Shanghai areas were rated by the survey as being in serious need of immediate remedial action. The value of apartments in buildings on contaminated sites may drop sharply, analysts warned. Officials said the results of the survey would soon be made public but did not say whether the release of information would be partial or complete. Thousands of firms are likely to benefit from the clean-up, especially those specialized in advanced soil remediation technology. People living on untreated industrial sites face health threats ranging from skin rashes to cancer. Research by CAS’ Institute of Soil Sciences showed that a large quantity of untreated toxic soil has been reused since 2000.
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