Chinese cities reliant on land sales rushing through clean-ups at polluted sites, study finds
- Researchers from Greenpeace and Nanjing University find ‘strong motive to sell land and do remediation as quickly as possible’ in some big cities
- Study highlights how rapid redevelopments could mean a higher risk of secondary soil pollution for new occupants
A new study released today has found Chinese cities that rely heavily on revenue from land sales tend to spend nearly 25 per cent less time cleaning up seriously polluted plots than places that do not.
The research by Greenpeace and Nanjing University’s ecology department highlighted how rapid redevelopments in congested Chinese urban areas could mean a higher risk of secondary soil pollution for new occupants.
It was based on the latest official data on 174 plots of land that were identified as polluted in 27 provincial capitals across China in 2017 and 2018.
“There is a trend. When a city has a high financial dependence on [revenue from] land sales, it has a strong motive to sell the land and do remediation as quickly as possible,” said Bao Hang, a Greenpeace East Asia toxics campaigner and the report’s main researcher.
“The main problem is that the quality of soil remediation therefore cannot be effectively guaranteed, and it might lead to second-hand pollution as a result of the restoration project,” he said.
According to the study, 54 per cent of the plots were contaminated by metals like chromium, arsenic and lead, while volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds accounted for 23 per cent and 17 per cent of the cases, respectively.