Abstract
The exponential growth in industrial activities in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has resulted in serious environmental problems including heavy metal pollution in soils. Without effective measures to avert the growing trend, the situation is going to escalate resulting in unproductive soils, transfer of toxic metals to food chains, which will negatively affect humans' and animals' health. In this chapter, specific measures to control and prevent heavy metal pollution in soils of SSA are discussed. Findings show the need to avoid pollution sources, use advanced technology to assay and predict soil pollution, use stringent legislations to curtail unsystematic industrial emissions, wastewater, solid waste, agrochemical, and fertilizer uses in agricultural activities. Such initiatives must be supported by geoscientific and technical capacity building to be effective.