To prevent Bosten Lake – also known as Bagrax Lake – which is
the country's largest inland stretch of freshwater from salinizing,
northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region will begin
four environmental protection projects this year, according to a
Xinhua News Agency report on July 2.
Officials with the region's development and reform commission
revealed that the projects involve industrial and urban consumer
sewage treatment, comprehensive retrieval of farmland drainage and
allowing cultivated land to revert to its natural state.
The sewage treatment project, which is funded partly with the
Austrian government loans, has already been implemented this year
to help the four counties around the lake build four sewage plants
to alleviate the problem of excessive discharges of waste water and
recover the damaged ecological environment. The total investment of
the project stands at 84.65 million yuan (US$10.4 million) of which
47.03 million yuan (4.95 million euros) came from Austria. The
remaining funding is being supplied by local governments. The
signing ceremony for the project was held on February 27, 2006.
Before this, local governments had adopted a number of effective
measures to improve the situation. These included allowing
cultivated land to revert to grasslands, cultivating reeds,
recovering wetlands and bringing into line those responsible for
pollution.?
Local officials promise that with the implementation of the four
projects, activities going on around the lake which cause pollution
will be effectively controlled within two years and the problem of
excessive discharges of waste water will be resolved in five years.
The urban consumer waste water and farmland drainage will be
treated and then used in reed cultivation and wetland recovery
operations.
All construction and land development projects within the lake
valley will be strictly managed and supervised. Illegal cultivation
of barren land and excessive logging of diversiform-leaved poplars
and purple willows would be severely punished, according to the
regional development and reform commission.
The environmental protection of the Bosten Lake has been listed
in the region's key construction plans for 2006. There are also six
smaller projects involving the recovery and protection of reed
wetlands in the lake area, ecological forest planting, ecological
environmental observation and research.
The Bosten Lake has an area of 1,001 square kilometers. As
China's largest inland freshwater lake formed by melting snow from
the Tianshan Mountain, it is also a paradise for rare and
endangered birds such as egret, hern, red-billed gull and
widgeon.
Statistics from local governments show that pollution in the
lake has been serious over the past decade with the mineraliztion
of water reaching 1.32 grams per liter in 2005 from 1.17 grams per
liter in 2000. And the salinization is obvious.
Farmland drainage, industrial and household waste water going
into the lake are considered to be the three largest polluters. The
completion of the four projects will also help to promote the
development of local businesses like fishing and tourism.
(China.org.cn by Li Jingrong, July 6, 2006)
