The water level in Hongjiannao, the country's largest natural fresh water lake in a desert, is continuing to decline, leading experts to worry that the lake could eventually disappear.

"In the past six years the water level of the lake has decreased by three meters. The area of the lake has decreased from 7,000 hectares in 1999 to 4,667 hectares at present, a 389-hectare decrease each year," said Lei Jiexiang, deputy director of the lake's scenic zone administration committee.

Located in Yulin Prefecture in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Hongjiannao is a famous desert scenic spot that attracts thousands of tourists each year. Last year, more than 130,000 visitors from Shaanxi and other regions visited the lake, Lei said.

The lake is a haven for birds and fish. "There are 26 kinds of birds that have second-class State protection and 16 kinds of wild fish living in the lake," the deputy director said.

"However, the continuing decline of the lake's water level has made us very depressed, and every decline extends the desert, which threatens the natural environment," Lei said.

Experts believe there are three reasons behind the decline of the lake's water level.

Dry weather is the first cause, according to Yang Guangtian, an expert on the desert lake. "I remember that the lake was hit by a flood caused by heavy rains in 1962, but since then there has been no heavy rain at all," the expert said.

According to local meteorological department, which monitors the weather in Hongjiannao, annual precipitation there is only about 350 millimeters, and there is a continental dry climate.

"The second cause of the lake's water reduction is the excessive extraction of ground water for farmland irrigation and for drinking water. Even worse is the destruction of the ground water system by industrial development," the expert said.

Geological data shows that the water source for the lake is mainly ground water. In the past decade, the ground water level has continued to fall and number of bogs and small lakes around Hongjiannao have dried up and vanished.

There are rich resources of coal, gas and oil in the region, and ill-thought-out mineral development has led to the destruction of the ground water system, said Jiao Peng, a local energy and power firm technician who has studied the area.

Moreover, the Yingpan River, which provides more than 40 percent of the total water supplied to the lake, stopped in 2004 in the upper reaches of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region because of water shortages, said Liu Jian, an official of Shenmu County where the lake is located.

The local government launched a project to protect the lake in 1992. The total area of the protection zone was planned to be 112 square kilometers and any building should have been forbidden up to one kilometer from the lake, Liu said.

"But the rapid and intemperate economic development is a serious threat to the lake, and we need more money for the lake's protection. Experts concluded after careful investigation that at least 300 million yuan (US$37 million) should be invested to fulfil the lake protection target," the official said.

(China Daily October 8, 2005)