Every April sees the sandstorms sweeping across Beijing and
northern parts of China, affecting people's life and work. Chen
Shoupeng, deputy to the 10th National People's Congress and
chairman of the Inner Mongolia Sandstorm Research and Control
Promotion Association, spoke to China.org.cn staff reporter about
the problem.
When talking about sandstorms, Chen looks serious. He says, "The
sandstorm started about 20 years ago. It is only recently that
Beijing is being affected by them. They originate of course from
present desert areas that were once grass and plant land."
According to the statistics, sandstorms began in the second half of
the twentieth century with about 60 percent originating from
southern Mongolia. In the 1950s, China experienced only five
storms, rising to 13 in 1970, 23 in 1990 with current statistics
showing much higher rates.
Today, the sandstorms are broader and stronger, originating from
remote Mongolia and reaching across the whole of the country. The
deputy spoke of the source of the storms being from Inner Mongolia,
Xinjiang, Gansu and Hebei.
According to the deputy, Inner Mongolia being home to five large
deserts in China (including Badain Jaran, Tengger, Kerqin, and
Hulun Buir) is an inevitable source of the problem. The area
comprises 710,000 sq. km and is bigger than seven Jiangsu Province,
but what concerns the most is that the sandy area is increasing by
6,680 kilometers per year, with Beijing close to the sand areas by
180 kilometers, when each spring the wind blows the yellow sand
through the country and into the cities.
"Excessive reclamation, herding and man-made destruction are the
main causes for desertification," Chen says. Local farmers have a
saying: "Reclaim the grasslands the first year and harvest only a
little grain the next. For the third and fourth there will only be
sand for food." In the last number of decades, the reclamation was
seen as a source of food production and necessary for livelihood
but now the livestock are no longer able to survive on the
remaining vegetation and the problem continues. However, it is good
that the damage has been stopped and that the main aim now is to
reverse some of the damage and repair the land.
The central authorities have already attached considerable
significance to the problem and have addressed desertification many
times. Hunshandake sandy area is central to a massive project now
that has seen an investment of 900 million yuan with 3.75 billion
yuan spent on Inner Mongolia's problem in its ecological
construction fund to date.
In
the Xilingol League where the main deserts are situated, an effort
is being made to rationalize the production of traditional breeding
stock and carry out activities to "enclose the grassland and forbid
herds to graze and encourage emigration in the area; regulating
stockbreeding industry structures and promoting a diversified
economy that would include milking cows, rearing sheep and keeping
cows in pens and also to stop the cultivation of fields and turn
them into forests instead.
Chen said, "To control the sandstorms we should take our scientific
methods and our technology and the government should guarantee the
quality and power of support for the ecology movement and promote
and protect our environmental consciousness: stressing education
for everyone. Chen concluded that this is his proposal to the
NPC.
In
conclusion, the ecological specialist took out an education book
entitled, Primary School Students Textbook on Ecology' and said
that this book, that was edited by him, expressed all his good
wishes.
(China.org.cn by Staff Reporter Yan Xinxia, translated by Chen Lin,
March 16, 2003)