More than a decade after large swaths of farmland in a village in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region were found to be contaminated with cadmium, a highly toxic element, the central government has finally allocated funding to local authorities for resolving the problem, The Beijing News reported Tuesday.

Industrial runoff from local mining operations that opened in 2007 had polluted nearly 200 hectares of farmland in Da’ou Village with heavy metals, villagers told The Beijing News. Though the private mine was closed the following year, drainage from the abandoned site has continued to flow into low-lying farmland.

However, the Debao County government, which administers the village, only started investigating the issue in 2016, citing financial constraints. According to the media report, the central government “recently” approved a 20 million yuan ($2.8 million) grant for soil remediation, a process used to decontaminate soil. (Image: @紧急呼叫 on Weibo)