Top legislature urges greater effort to fight rural pollution

The top legislature has urged intensified efforts to fight pollution in rural areas to ensure food safety after a four-month inspection revealed tough challenges including soil pollution.

Although it is illegal to discharge sewage, garbage, gas or other harmful substances at the places of origin of agricultural products, governments in many places have not strictly observed the law, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

The report, based on a national inspection of the enforcement of the Law on Agricultural Product Quality and Safety conducted between May and September, said 2.9 percent of China's cultivated land has serious or medium pollution, and the situation is getting worse in some areas.