Soil pollution in China: poisoned land on the equivalent of three times France

Imagine a huge country from Portugal to the Netherlands, Spain, France and Belgium. An entity of about a million and a half square kilometers, all of which would be polluted to the smallest square centimeter. Horrifying? A reality in China.

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It is the Chinese authorities, who are usually unwilling to communicate about the country’s weak spots, who have themselves revealed the information. According to an extrapolation based on a vast study conducted on about two thirds of the territory, a million square kilometers (twice the metropolitan France!), 16% of the lands of the Middle Kingdom are polluted. A figure that climbs to 20% for agricultural land according to this survey that the authorities tried to hide by classifying it “state secret” -and which still remains partially classified. Finally, note that this study conducted from 2005 to 2013 is based on Chinese standards to determine whether a parcel is polluted or not … Standards that are not specified in the study.

The report is clear: cadmium, lead, mercury, arsenic are just some of the pollutants found in large quantities in Chinese soils. The fault of an intensive agriculture but also to the economic boom, which led to an explosion of the industry, in particular the chemical industry. But also due to particularly lax rules. Chinese standards – revised since – have long focused only on the concentration of pollutants, so it was sufficient to dilute water contaminated with arsenic with clean water to pass under radars, says a report from the OECD of 2005.

Read: In China, 3 million deaths a year could be avoided by reducing pollution

On arrival, an ecological and sanitary disaster. According to surveys released in 2011 by academics in Nanjing (east coast, near Shanghai), nearly 10% of rice marketed in China would be contaminated with cadmium, a chemical element classified as carcinogenic by the WHO and whose effects are frightening in particular on the kidneys, skeleton and respiratory system. In some districts, it is even 60% of the rice that would be unfit for consumption, and yet eaten. As a result, the World Bank estimated in 2007 that air and water pollution alone caused an estimated health cost of 4.3% of China’s GDP that is more than 120 billion euros. It’s almost the entire budget of the French Social Security branch the same year.

A statement without appeal to which the authorities have decided to react, especially since the situation has worsened since these different studies have appeared. In May 2016, the central government announced a plan to fight soil pollution with the launch of a special fund and resources to advance technically its heavy metals industry. The aim is to reduce the land pollution worsening by 2020, then stabilize and finally improve its quality by 2030.

Beijing is struggling to attract foreign investors to clean up its soil despite a colossal market that experts estimate at more than 600 billion euros. We can blame the uncertainty: what about the “polluter-country” principle, adopted by the OECD in 1972 for example? Or the current rules of land purchase (and expropriation …) in the Middle Kingdom?

But the market is still a gold mine that France is eyeing closely, particularly the specialist in pollution control Valgo, a tricolor medium-sized business. “In broad terms, there are two techniques to clean up a plot,” said François Bouché, CEO of Valgo (and shareholder of the group holding France-Soir). “The first is to simply evacuate the contaminated land further and bury it. It’s simple but expensive, especially in terms of carbon footprint, for a solution that is not really a solution”. The second, the core business of his company, is more complex. And in a multiple reality.

“It is possible to treat polluted soil locally by excavating it or even directly in the soil”, explains for example Eric Branquet, independent expert at the Paris Court of Appeal and specialist collaborating with Valgo on several projects (notably that of Petroplus, near Rouen in Seine-Maritime). Then there is another technique, the one of biomass treatment, which consists of using specific bacteria to naturally degrade the diesel fuel polluting a soil. “But these are just some of the techniques. This is the strength of Valgo: precisely analyze each project to make the right diagnosis and then put in place the right technique, which is adapted to the site. All in order to implement a treatment combining performance and cost control regarding especially to the carbon footprint”.

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Competition is fierce in this historically Dutch-dominated sector, as it is a country where space has long been a crucial issue and where every single parcel has to be valued. The Germans, the British and the Americans are also in the lead, even if they operate mainly at home where the needs are enormous. The French are also among the heavyweights with the giants Veolia and Suez (via their dedicated subsidiaries). A scenario in which VALGO succeeds in finding a place.

This is probably why François Bouché was taken away by Emmanuel Macron during his recent trip to China. In the delegation, 50 business leaders like Areva, Airbus, Safran and … so was Valgo. The only specialist soil remediation present during this trip.