The 13th World Lake Conference ended Thursday in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, with a declaration to call for governments and the world to combat lake pollution and promote lake rehabilitation.

At least 1,500 delegates from about 45 countries attended the conference, which was held this week under the theme "For the Rehabilitation of our Lakes: Global Challenges and Chinese Innovations."

Wan Bentai, chief engineer of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, announced the Wuhan Declaration at the closing ceremony.

The declaration says lakes represent the main source of readily-accessible liquid freshwater and maintaining and restoring lake ecological resources is an important measure for addressing global climate change issues.

It says water pollution, scarce water supplies, degraded ecosystems, and shrinking wetlands are serious threats, both to the survival of humanity and to the sustainable development of all nations, especially developing countries.

Unsustainable consumption and production patterns, inadequate institutional and legal structures for the protection and management of lakes, inadequate financing and pollution control technologies are among the causes constraining the sustainable use of lakes and their basins.

It calls on all nations to develop a common vision to facilitate the restoration, balance and vitality of lakes and their basins.

"The declaration sets a vision or framework for actions, showing people what they should be doing on lake protection," said Walter Rast, director of International Center for Watershed Studies at Texas State University.

The declaration also says innovations developed in China and elsewhere to address issues related to the protection and sustainability of lake basin ecosystems, and that lessons learned in their implementation, can potentially benefit lake basin management efforts on a global scale.

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