People in North China still have bitter memories of last year's frequent sandstorms. Now the government is taking steps to tackle that environmental problem, according to an article in Beijing Review.

In March, 20 scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences traveled to Northwest China to observe and investigate the ecological environment in places where sandstorms originated.

Scientists discovered that the sand comes mainly from desertified grasslands, farmlands and fields out of cultivation bordering deserts.

These fragile plots of land are a result of human activity. In farming-stockbreeding areas, some farmers destroyed forests and grasslands to open up more fields for farming.

Overgrazing is another problem. Since the 1950s, the number of domestic animals in pastoral areas has increased from 29 million to more than 90 million, while the area of grasslands has been shrinking, due to reclamation, land deterioration and desertification.

Excess use of water resources also is to blame. Water conservation projects built on the upper reaches of rivers have retained large amounts of water, causing a reduction in water flow or even drying it up at the lower reaches, killing vegetation.

Because China's excessively large population is exploiting land and forest resources in a disorderly manner, people are suffering from the disastrous consequences of soil erosion and land desertification. In North China, desertified land, as a result of human activities, is expanding at a rate of 2,460 square kilometers annually.

Daily economic losses in China caused by desertification are as high as 150 million yuan (US$18.1 million).

Comparing their latest findings with historical records, scientists found that the number of sandstorms in China has risen in the past 50 years. In 2000, there were nine strong sandstorms - the most in the past five decades. And the first three months of this year saw two strong sandstorms.

This phenomenon foreshadows the beginning of a new active period of sandstorms, the scientists said.

A draft law on sand prevention and control is now being discussed by the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's legislative body.

The law is expected to include seven chapters and 49 articles with explicit stipulations on prevention of land desertification, treatment of desertified land and liabilities.

Qu Geping, chairman of the NPC Environmental and Resources Protection Committee, said that the law is aimed at cracking down on illegal activities resulting in the destruction of forests and grasslands. It also defines the responsibility of governments at various levels. And it places new emphasis on increasing investment in and support for sand prevention and control projects.

Recently, the State Environmental Protection Administration, together with the Ministry of Agriculture, the State Forestry Administration and the Ministry of Water Resources, jointly created the Plan for Construction of Sand Prevention and Control Engineering Projects. More than 6 billion yuan (US$722 million) will be invested in the coming decade to treat desertified land in North China.

Programs to return farmlands to forests and grasslands also are being conducted.

China began to restore farmlands to forests and grasslands in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces on a trial basis in 1999. Since then, 450,000 hectares of farmland have been planted with trees and grass.

This year the project will be expanded to 20 provinces and autonomous regions.

Efforts will be made to introduce compulsory water-efficient irrigation in areas at the middle and upper reaches of the major rivers and to raise the usage rate of water resources. Measures also will be taken to conserve and restore ecological equilibrium in downstream areas of inland rivers.

In addition, efforts will be devoted to building monitoring networks in areas where sandstorms originate to gain a better knowledge of the law of sandstorms, keep abreast with the developments and forecast sandstorms in a timely manner.

Experts said that through these measures, China will be able to curb the expansion of desertification by the year 2010. By 2030, 60 percent of treatable desertified land will be effectively improved.

(People's Daily 10/06/2001)