China admits patchy progress tackling soil, water pollution, with some rivers worsening

Efforts to tackle water pollution in China remain uneven with some areas worsening last year, while heavy metals and other pollutants continued to accumulate in Chinese soil, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said.

In a yearly work report, Chen Jining, head of the ministry told the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, a top Chinese decision making body, that overall air, water and soil pollutants had improved in 2016, according to a post on the congress website late on Monday.

However, “Improvements in water quality are uneven, some bodies for water are worsening,” Chen said, noting that checks on water quality in northern China’s Liao River and Songhua River found more poor quality sections than in 2015.

Agricultural land soil quality “does not allow for optimism and the problem of soil pollution for industry, companies and nearby land is prominent”, Chen said.

Ministry samples found that 36.3 per cent of heavy polluting industries’ land and the surrounding soil did not meet government standards, he added.

Chen urged reporters in March to focus on overall trends, which showed China was making rapid progress in its anti-pollution efforts, even though serious problems remained.