State Council formulates plan to fight soil pollution

BEIJING -- The State Council, China's Cabinet, announced an action plan to combat soil pollution on Tuesday.

The plan urged relevant departments, including Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Ministry of Land and Resources and Ministry of Finance, to jointly launch one survey on soil conditions every 10 years.

Related laws should be revised to add contents about soil pollution control, according to the State Council.

The plan also unveiled other requirements, including that the country should realize the target of "zero growth" of the amount of chemical fertilizers and pesticides used on crops by 2020.

According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Land and Resources, about 16.1 percent of China's surveyed land is polluted by heavy metals such as cadmium, arsenic, lead and mercury. In addition, 19.4 percent of surveyed arable land had levels of pollution higher than the national standard.