常州污染事件暴露中国棕地隐患

Beijing is scrambling to respond to reports that hundreds of students at a high school built on the site of a former pesticide factory have become ill, in a rare case of public acknowledgment of the dangers of brownfield sites in China.

据中国媒体报道，数百名初中生因学校建在一座化工厂的旧址而患病，中国政府目前正对此事作出紧急回应，罕见地公开承认了国内棕地(brownfield site)的危险。

The Changzhou Foreign Language School moved to a new campus in the industrial city in eastern China last autumn. By December, students were complaining of rashes, nosebleeds and strange smells, according to a series of reports in Chinese media, culminating with a report by state-owned broadcaster CCTV this weekend. Some students had been diagnosed with cancer, the reports said.

常州是中国东部的一座工业城市，常州外国语学校(Changzhou Foreign Language School)于去年秋季迁入位于该市的新校区。根据中国媒体的连续报道，去年12月，学生们就抱怨出现皮炎、鼻子出血等身体不适症状，空气中也有异味，连国有的中央电视台(CCTV)也在上周末对此作出报道。新闻中表示，部分学生已被诊断出患有癌症。

On Monday, the environment ministry said it was “attaching great importance” to the case, which comes as the department is preparing an action plan for soil pollution across the country. Two years ago it declassified a report that showed the extent of soil pollution after initially labelling it a “state secret”.

本周一，中国环保部表示对此事已予以“高度重视”，该部正准备对全国土壤污染制定行动计划。两年前环保部曾解密了一份有关土壤污染程度的报告，该报告最初被标注为“国家机密”。

China is littered with brownfield sites, many of them only superficially rehabilitated before being redeveloped for residential and other uses. Experts involved in the national action plan have estimated that clean-up costs could mount to RMB7tn ($1.1tn), roughly equivalent to one-third of national foreign exchange reserves.

中国各地散布着棕地，其中许多只在表层进行了修复，然后就重新开发成住宅或做其他用途。据参与环保部全国行动计划的专家估计，清理费用可达7万亿元人民币（合1.1万亿美元），约等于中国外汇储备的三分之一。

The World Bank has proposed that developers of abandoned sites pay to rehabilitate them in order to get greater value in subsequent sales. However, there are few safeguards to ensure corners are not cut, and many brownfield sites’ commercial value is insufficient to cover the cost of a clean-up.

世界银行(World Bank)曾提议开发商可以为废弃地址支付修复费，从而在随后的销售中获得更大价值。但是没有多少保障措施来确保开发商不会走捷径，而且许多棕地的商业价值并不足以覆盖清理费用。

Chinese reports on the Changzhou school said the previous tenant, a chemicals and pesticides factory, had buried chemical waste on the site before it relocated in 2010.

据相关中文报道，常州外国语学校新校址之前的承租者是一家化工厂，这家工厂于2010年迁走，此前曾将化工废物掩埋在地下。

“The tragedy that has occurred in Changzhou shows just how dangerously lax China’s hazardous chemical management is,” said Ada Kong, Greenpeace campaign manager in East Asia for toxic chemicals.

绿色和平(Greenpeace)东亚分部有毒化学品项目经理江卓珊(Ada Kong)表示：“常州发生的悲剧说明了中国的危险化学品管理是多么松懈。”

China had hoped to tackle air and water pollution first but policymakers are becoming aware that the problems of water and soil pollution are intertwined. Last week, the water resources ministry said more than 80 per cent of shallow groundwater wells it had surveyed were polluted.

中国起初也曾希望解决空气和水污染问题，但政策制定者们逐渐意识到，水和土壤污染问题错综复杂。上周中国水利部表示据调查，国内80%以上的浅层地下水受到污染。

Both soil and water pollution are exacerbated by China’s practice of continually relocating factories, whether because of complaints about pollution or urban sprawl.

随着工厂的不断搬迁——可能因为污染投诉，也可能因为城市扩张——中国的土壤和水污染正在加剧。

The Nature Conservancy, a US-based environment group, estimated on Monday that preventing or ameliorating pollution in water catchments that together make up only 6 per cent of China’s land area would improve drinking water quality for 73 per cent of its people.

美国环保组织大自然保护协会(Nature Conservancy)在周一表示，只要对仅占中国国土面积6%的集水区的污染加以预防或改善，就能提高73%的国民的饮水质量。