China announced “Notice on Strengthening Management of the Soil pollution Prevention Project (collection for opinions)” 
On July 7, 2020, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China (MEE) announced “Notice on Strengthening Management of the Soil pollution Prevention Project (collection for opinions)”, in order to strengthen management of the central soil pollution prevention fund support projects and improve the procedures and utilization efficiency of the fund. The opinion collecting will last until July 20.
The “notice” reveals detailed provisions on the five parts, including classification/cycle, responsibility sharing, management procedures, management requirements, and supervisory management, for the projects.
The key contents of the five parts are as follows.
Project classification/cycle:
Specify the type and period of soil pollution prevention projects, such as soil pollution source control and soil pollution survey. As a general rule regarding maximum period for project implementation cycle, risk management and remediation projects for soil are limited to three years, risk control and remediation projects for groundwater or projects related to safety use for agricultural land are limited to five years, and the other projects are limited to two years.
Responsibility sharing:
MEE is responsible for establishing, operating and managing the spare warehousing system under the central soil pollution prevention fund support projects.
Management procedures:
The procedures include application for the projects and examination, approval of excellent projects, election of annual projects that are supported by fund, project implementation, survey on the progress, report on completion of the projects, etc.
Management requirements:
The contents of the requirements are clarified in four parts:
- Making of the project implementation plan;
- Solicitation for bids, and purchase
- Financial review and management system
- Project coordination
For the step 1, the project implementation plan requires outlining, degree of necessity, scope and content, technical route, budget for investment, initial investment funds, amount of applied support fund, implementation plan, and expected result, for the project, all of which must reach the level expected in the feasibility research report.
Supervision and management:
This part includes supervision and management by the local department of ecology and environment, credit management for companies and individuals operating projects, and supervision and management by community through activities such as setting-up of sign board for implementation of project construction.
The original text of the “notice” can be downloaded from the following URL (Chinese: Simplified).
http://www.mee.gov.cn/xxgk2018/xxgk/xxgk06/202007/t20200708_788171.html
