The Chinese Government plans to conduct a nationwide soil pollution survey, the Ministry of Land and Resources said on June 12.

Soil samples will be collected at multiple depths in order to find both the natural condition of the soil and the impact that human activity has had on it, the ministry said.

Samples taken at both deep and shallow depths will reveal how chemical elements have affected the soil, but the ministry did not give a precise date for releasing the survey results.

The ministry said that previous investigations indicate that some regions are heavily polluted, particularly near the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the country's longest waterway.

The public has asked authorities to issue soil pollution data, as well as detailed measures to handle the problem, after a recent food safety scandal involving cadmium-tainted rice in south China's Guangdong Province.