Let us end soil pollution cases harming villagers

There were turning points in the environmental protection histories of many developed countries in the last century. Serious pollution incidents awakened the public to environmental threats and forced governments to enact laws and set up powerful organs to protect the environment.

The case with China is different. Before reaching the turning point, it already has environmental laws and largely ineffective environmental protection law-enforcement departments.

Despite the laws, the cadmium pollution case in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region in South China has all the elements of a major environmental disaster.