Rural environmental protection will be given a more prominent position
On March 7, the Third Session of the 12th National People's Congress held a press conference, at which Minister of Environmental Protection Chen Jining answered reporters' questions on issues including heavy metal contamination of land and the treatment of rural environmental pollution.
Chen Jining said that good soil quality is an important safeguard for the safety of agricultural products and the health of the people. The CPC Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to this issue and have designated tackling soil pollution as one of the three major action plans in the war on pollution. At present, the Ministry of Environmental Protection is drafting a soil pollution prevention and control law and formulating an action plan for soil pollution prevention and control.
Chen Jining stated that next the Ministry of Environmental Protection will join forces with relevant departments to carry out further detailed surveys of soil pollution, gain a clear picture of the situation, and do a good job of controlling pollution sources. “To solve the problem of soil pollution, four areas of work must currently be done well: First, corresponding legal systems and standards must be established. Soil pollution treatment must have laws to abide by and rules to follow. Second, environmental supervision of industrial and mining enterprises must be strengthened. The sources of soil pollution must be cut off and the trend of expanding soil pollution must be curbed. Third, polluted land must be managed by classification and grading, pollution control must be done well, and the spread and expansion of such pollution must be avoided. Fourth, through pilot demonstrations, a pollution treatment technology system suited to our own country must be established, and the risk control and treatment and remediation of soil pollution must be gradually promoted.”
Rural environmental problems have several prominent manifestations: First, with the treatment of urban and industrial pollution sources, the proportion of rural pollution sources is rising, and the emissions of some pollutants are now close to “half the total.” Second, the proportion of villages nationwide carrying out environmental remediation is still too low, only about 10%. The problems of rural “dirtiness, disorder and poor conditions” are still fairly widespread. Third, rural areas face the real problem of the transfer of urban and industrial pollution. Fourth, the overall degradation of the rural ecological environment has not yet been fundamentally curbed.
⟦NL> Chen Jining believes that soil pollution is a difficult issue in environmental protection work and also a prominent one. This issue not only affects farmers' production and lives, but also involves fairness and justice across society as a whole. The Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Finance have in the past vigorously implemented the policy of “promoting treatment through awards” to drive rural environmental pollution remediation, mainly solving a number of problems strongly reflected by farmers through contiguous remediation, such as drinking water safety, sewage and garbage treatment, and so on.
Chen Jining stated that the Ministry of Environmental Protection will place rural environmental protection work in a more prominent position in the country's overall environmental governance work, especially in conjunction with air pollution control and the implementation of the soon-to-be-released “Water Ten Plan,” increase rural governance efforts, and promote the equalization of basic public services for urban and rural environmental protection. At the same time, in conjunction with the implementation of the new Environmental Protection Law, law enforcement efforts will be increased to effectively prevent industrial and urban pollution sources from being transferred to rural areas. Continue to promote contiguous rural environmental remediation, focusing on solving the problems of domestic sewage, domestic garbage and livestock and poultry pollution, and ensuring the safety of rural water supply. A target responsibility system for rural environmental protection must be established to reflect local governments' responsibility for rural environmental protection.