Soil pollution is causing serious damage to environment and public health and is hindering the sustainable development of agriculture, a top environment official warned yesterday.

"It is estimated that nationwide 12 million tons of grain are polluted by heavy metals that have found their way into the soil each year," Zhou Shengxian, minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), said in a video conference.

"Losses (from the grain) have exceeded 20 billion yuan (US$2.5 billion)," he said.

Harmful substances accumulate in the soil, which are then absorbed by crops that are consumed by people. This, he said, will harm public health.

An incomplete investigation showed that currently 10 million hectares of arable land in China are polluted. More than 2 million hectares of soil is irrigated with wastewater, while 130,000 hectares of land is used to store waste materials, ministry figures show.

"Currently the control and prevention efforts are ineffective, because we lack some important information such as where the polluted soil is, and how it is polluted," Zhou said.

There is currently no legislation concerning soil pollution, nor is there a standard system for assessment, while some local officials lack understanding of the issue. These factors have created obstacle, Zhou said.

SEPA and the Ministry of Land and Resources will launch a three-year soil pollution survey with a budget of 1 billion yuan (US$125 million), it was announced yesterday.

China has 120 million hectares of arable land, 13 percent of its land area. This equates to 0.1 hectares of arable land per person, 40 percent the global average.

(China Daily July 19, 2006)