China vows to root out soil pollution

Threats posed by air and water pollution have often overshadowed the nation's contaminated farmland, but now the government has made the first moves to tackle a hidden killer. Zheng Jinran reports.

China has widened the scope of its anti-pollution efforts to include soil pollution for the first time.

A specific plan of action for the prevention and control of soil pollution will come into force during the period of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), and the nation's first specific national law on the control and prevention of soil pollution is being drafted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.