Sustainable Soil Pollution Management Project

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Shaoguan City, a less developed city in Guangdong Province, faces pressing issues of heavy metal pollution and soil degradation in both development and arable lands, driven by industrial, agricultural and waste sources. These issues threaten vital soil ecosystem services and are further intensified by climate change. Shaoguan, a pioneer city in soil pollution control during the 13th Five-Year Plan, achieved a 30 percent reduction in heavy metal emissions through various policies and measures. However, the national and City’s 14th Five-Year Plan for Ecological and Environmental Protection highlights persistent challenges, including “continued accumulation of heavy metals near mining and smelting industries”, “risks from legacy contaminated sites to arable land”, “unstable results from the current safe-utilization strategy for polluted arable land”, “limited monitoring for precise decision-making”, and “insufficient interagency coordination”. Shaoguan also lacks integrated monitoring systems for air deposition, water, soil, and crops to assess cumulative pollution impacts, tools for prioritizing interventions, and integrated strategies for soil pollution control and soil quality enhancement, particularly considering climate change impacts. The project addresses these challenges by (i) adopting a systematic, flux-based model for precise pollution management to address cumulative impacts; (ii) integrating soil pollution management with soil quality improvement to increase carbon sequestration and improve climate resilience; and (iii) improving interagency collaboration and data-sharing mechanisms.The project will play a pivotal role in supporting China’s targets to safely utilize 95 percent of contaminated sites and arable land by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. By applying a proven flux-based approach - successfully utilized in the EU and the USA for air and water pollution - the project marks the first global application of this approach to soil pollution management. Building on the Guangdong’s provincial standard “Risk Management and Remediation of Heavy Metal Contamination in Cultivated Land – General Rule (2020)” , which has required collection of heavy metal flux data to support risk assessment and management, the project will institutionalize flux-based soil pollution management in Shaoguan, offering valuable insights and scalable strategies to address similar challenges across China and globally, particularly in tropical and subtropical regions. The project’s adoption of sustainable soil pollution management will improve soil quality, enhance soil ecosystem services, strengthen human capital, and improve land productivity and safety, addressing both long-term sustainability and immediate needs. By proactively targeting cumulative pollution impacts on arable land already at risk, the project moves beyond reactive, short-term solutions, ensuring lasting environmental and agricultural sustainability (see specific activities under Component 1). These efforts will also create diverse job opportunities, generating demand for skilled labor in integrated monitoring, flux modeling and risk mapping, cumulative impact analysis, carbon crediting, sustainable and integrated crop pollution reduction, soil quality improvement and methane emission reduction practices, and the production of heavy metal-free amendments for soil restoration. The project has three technical components and will be implemented in Shaoguan city and its four counties. First, it will strengthen the enabling environment for flux-based management and integrating soil pollution management with soil quality improvement at both city and county levels. Second, the project will finance heavy metal source reduction by designing and implementing site-specific remediation and risk control at legacy contaminated industrial and mine sites, irrigation systems, and landfills, and designing an economic incentive mechanism for heavy metal emission reduction beyond compliance at active industries. Third, the project will finance technical measures and limited infrastructure to reduce heavy metal uptake in crops, improve soil quality and lower methane emissions on low-to-medium risk arable land and supplementary arable land. Components 2 and 3 will be implemented across the four participating counties in Shaoguan City. Under Component 2, the project focuses on heavy metal source reduction in Ruyuan, Lechang, and Renhua. Component 3 will include safe utilization of arable land in all four counties, priority protection of arable land in Lechang and Nanxiong, and supplementary arable land in Ruyuan, Renhua, and Nanxiong.The project follows a phased approach, as detailed contaminated site/arable land investigation are required to select and determine appropriate remediation and risk control measures for contaminated sites, irrigation trenches and landfills, and technical measures for arable land. Ruyuan’s strong leadership has led to the prioritization of no regret Component 3 investment activities in the first 18 months of the project in Ruyuan. Detailed design and implementation plans for these investment activities in Ruyuan have been prepared and their procurement will be advanced after appraisal. The remaining project investment activities under Components 2 and 3 have undergone feasibility studies, and the detailed designs will be developed based on thorough site investigations and crop/soil monitoring during the first 18 months of implementation. Their environmental and social impact assessment process is outlined in an Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF). During the first 18 months of implementation, intensive site investigation and arable land monitoring will be carried out, along with site-specific Environmental and Social Impact Assessments (ESIAs), Environmental and Social Management Plans (ESMPs), and other environmental and social instruments to be developed. The project has four components: Component 1: Strengthen Enabling Environment for Sustainable Soil Pollution Management Component 2: Heavy Metal Source Reduction: Subcomponent 2.1: Management of Legacy Contamination (contaminated sites, irrigation sediments and landfills) Subcomponent 2.2: Management of Active Pollution SourcesComponent 3: On-site Arable Land Pollution Management Subcomponent 3.1: Pollution Management in Safe Utilization Arable Land Subcomponent 3.2: Pollution Prevention at Priority Protection Arable Land Subcomponent 3.3: Pollution Prevention at Supplementary Arable LandComponent 4: Project Management and Monitoring and Evaluation.