On November 7th, the MEE and seven other ministries issued the “Action Plan for Soil Pollution Source Prevention and Control​.”

The targets of the Action Plan include: by 2027, (1) over 90% compliance in rectifying potential hazards in key soil monitoring units; (2) achieve a 94% safe utilization rate of contaminated arable land; (3) strengthen protections for urban construction sites​.

It proposes 20 measures in 4 key areas:​ enhance the policy system for preventing soil pollution at source, e.g. implement the partitioned approach to environmental management;  ​strengthen pollution control, e.g. reinforce the supervision through approaches, such as real-time wastewater management; ​address legacy pollution, e.g. remediate polluted farmlands and mining sites​; build institution mechanisms, e.g. improve data sharing.

This new Action Plan integrates soil pollution prevention into green industrial transformation by encouraging relevant enterprises to phase out high-pollution equipment and use green equipment to prevent pollution leakage.​

Potential challenges are that soil pollution in arable land exhibits high spatial variability due to different soil types, pollutant sources, etc., complicating remediation practices.