China has injected a record 50 million yuan (US$6 million) into
hydrological network construction and management in two frontier
areas to intensify monitoring and forecasting along international
rivers.
The construction began in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur
Autonomous Region, an official with the Ministry of Water
Resources said, confirming that southwest China's Yunnan
Province will soon follow suit.
Zhang Jianyun, deputy-director of the ministry's Hydrological
Bureau, made it clear that the move marks the beginning of China's
efforts to strengthen international cooperation with its
neighboring countries sharing international rivers -- which flow
across more than two countries, including related lakes within
their drainage areas -- by actualizing hydrological monitoring and
information services.
To
date, construction of hydrological stations on Xinjiang's two
international rivers -- the Ili and Ertix -- has been started as
the first phase of the scheme.
Chinese water authorities will soon begin to examine their
preliminary designs of the run to be set up along the Lancang
(called the Mekong outside China) and the Yuanjiang (the Red River)
in Yunnan.
There are more than 100 such rivers in China's seven provinces and
autonomous regions, including Xinjiang, Tibet, Yunnan and the Inner
Mongolia.
International rivers in China flow through more than 10 of China's
neighboring countries, including Viet Nam, Korea and Russia.
However, existing facilities have lagged behind ever-increasing
cooperations between China and the neighboring countries in the
exchange of hydrological information, water resources management
and shipping, due to inadequacy of hydrological stations and
unclear run-offs.
Zhang's bureau has worked out an overall program for the
construction of a hydrological monitoring network, scheduled to be
completed in 80 percent of China's international rivers, with the
approval of the Ministry of Water Resources early this year.
Zhang said: "The move will be helpful for China to provide its
downstream neighboring countries with humanitarian aid."
(China
Daily April 15, 2002)