The environment of China's biggest freshwater lake, Poyang in eastern China, has benefited from the lake's expansion, said experts at an ongoing conference.

The United Nations Symposium on Integrated Implementation of Sustainable development Goals convened Tuesday in Nanchang, capital of east China's Jiangxi Province.

With the expansion of its water acreage and floodwater storage, Poyang Lake has begun again to partially regulate the climate and water quality, the experts acknowledged, saying that Poyang is the biggest flood control lake in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

The fast population growth in the nearby area and the large-scale activity of reclaiming land from the lake has resulted in the deterioration of the region's environment. The lake shrunk by 1,300 sq km during the past half century and lost more than 20 percent of its flood control capability.

The Chinese central government launched a drive to re-flood the dried land in 1998. And at the end of 2004, the acreage of Poyang Lake grew from 3,900 to 5,100 sq km.

Hydrologists from Jiangxi Province said the wetland around Poyang Lake also enlarged as the lake space expanded.

The wetland deposits silt contained in the water flowing into the Poyang Lake, which improves the quality of its freshwater. Less fertilizer and pesticide residue will flow into the land after much farmland is returned into water, which also reduce the pollution in the lake.

(Xinhua News Agency May 10, 2005)