Rules needed for land rehabilitation

LAND OWNED BY THE STATE-OWNED Guangzhou iron and Steel Enterprises Group in South China's Guangdong province, which has been sold to local property developers for more than 27.7 billion yuan ($4.2 billion), reportedly still contains heavy metal pollutants in the soil. Beijing News commented on Saturday:

Despite the rehabilitation of the "tainted" land of Guangzhou Iron and Steel Enterprises Group, which is only expected to be completed in July, local real estate enterprises had already started construction on it last year, claiming that they have all the required paperwork including an environmental impact assessment.

The truth is, even a legitimate environmental impact assessment does not guarantee that the land, which is still recovering from heavy metal pollution, is free of health risks. Whether the land will be decontaminated remains unknown, because it is fairly difficult to get rid of all embedded heavy metals, which have polluted the ground for years.