Zhangjiakou City, a major water source of the Chinese capital Beijing, has made painstaking efforts to protect local eco-environment, with priority given to prevention of water erosion.

Officials say they have carried out a comprehensive treatment program in an area of 6,187 square kilometers and planted trees in380,000 hectares of land over the last 20 years.

The city's green cover rate has risen by 10 percent thanks to these measures, and the water quality in Guanting Reservoir, a major source of drinking water for Beijing, is steadily improving, an official said Monday.

Statistics show that the quantity of sediment entering the reservoir annually has dwindled from the 8.99 million tons in 1983to 3.11 million tons today.

Sandwiched between plains in the north and hills in the south, the city stands as an ecological barrier for Beijing, but it used to suffer a severe water erosion. In the worst case, more than 25,000 square kilometers of land was eroded by water, about 67 percent of the city's total.

Since the land treatment program was started in 1983, the local government has invented various ways including the lease and auction of barren land to accelerate the work.

(Xinhua News Agency April 28, 2003)