Since February, northern parts of China have been hit by at
least eight sandstorms, three in the first half of April alone.
Affected areas have incurred severe economic losses as a result of
disruptions to traffic, environmental protection programs and
sanitary works.
The dire situation begs the question: "Just who or what is to
blame; Nature, man or both?"
When conditions were particularly bad between April 9 and 11, a
journalist from the Beijing-based newspaper China Business
News went to the Alxa League of
Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, said to be the "heart" of the
sandstorms, in search of an answer.
"The frequency of sandstorms in recent years has continued to
rise, in terms of force as well, and affecting more areas. I think
the reason comprises both natural and human factors," said Xiang
Ming, deputy director of the Science and Technology Bureau of the
Alxa League.
Increased human activity in terms of over-exploitation of land
and groundwater resources has caused severe water shortages and
desertification.
Results from surveys conducted by a non-governmental
organization, the Alxa Society Entrepreneur Ecology (SEE), show
that the most serious ecological deterioration of the Alxa region
is fairly recent, having taken place only over the past few
decades.
Alxa is China's biggest source of sand and dust, the north and
northwest routes of a sandstorm.
The Alxa Plateau is surrounded by mountains and most of it is
desert with drifting dunes. Some 82.3 percent of the area is
desert. The Ulan Buh and Badain Jaran deserts sprawl across an
additional eight to 20 meters every year.
"These sandstorms are the most serious I've witnessed in recent
years," Xiang said. "I've lived here for over 50 years. Compared
with the time when I was young, sandstorms now have become more and
more frequent and severe, and the eco-environment worse and
worse."
Relevant documents show that although Alxa has always been a
predominantly desert area, it was once a good habitat for livestock
because it has three eco-protective screens that run in three
directions, namely the primitive secondary forests in Helan
Mountain to the east, poplar forests in the Ejin Banner in the
Heihe River basin to the west, and saksaul forests to the
north.
Deng Yi, vice secretary of SEE, said: "It is a pity that the
quality of the three natural screens has degraded over the years, a
situation that has directly resulted in water shortages in rivers,
a sharp reduction in bio-diversity, and desertification. The
sandstorms have exerted an unfortunate influence on global weather
conditions as well."
According to an SEE survey, pastureland in Alxa is shrinking by
26,000 mu (1,734 ha) per year, and a total of 3.34 million
ha of pastureland has so far disappeared. Only 30 plant species
remain the estimated 130 original species. Vegetation cover has
been reduced by 30 to 80 percent. As a result of this loss in
grazing ground, many animals, mostly rare species, have to relocate
in search of food, and many are in danger of becoming extinct.
Changes in modes of production have also led to a dramatic drop
in groundwater levels. Corn and other crops that need large amounts
of water were planted in great numbers with the shift from animal
husbandry to agriculture.
?
In an attempt to control the situation, herdsmen were relocated
from severely deteriorated pastureland?in the hope that nature
would take its course and rejuvenate the damaged land. ?
However, Deng believes that this method will prove ineffective.
According to SEE studies, allowing pastureland to lie idle exposes
the land to the risk of rat damage and fire. Damage caused by human
beings and livestock is not as serious as a water shortage. This is
the view shared by many herdsmen who believe that there can be no
improvement without water, even if grazing is stopped.
"Relocation isn't all there is to it," Deng said.
"It is very necessary to adopt a scientific method of irrigation
in the desert areas to the west," an irrigation expert with the
Ministry of Science and Technology, Qiu Weiduo, told China
Business News.
He said that the current method of "flooding irrigation" has to
be changed. Further, more should be done to exploit local
conditions including long periods of sunshine and good natural soil
texture.
Another method, according to Xiang Ming, is to conduct
artificial control in small areas. A research project into
technologies for recovering ecology damaged through desertification
has been approved by the State Science and Technology Commission.
The Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research
Institute of the Chinese Academy
of Sciences (CAS) will take charge of the project.
According to initial research results from the research
institute, only 10 percent of desert land has been brought under
proper control and 12 percent rehabilitated to varying degrees, in
spite of the time and money spent on desert management by the
central government. Partial control and overall deterioration have
not changed fundamentally.
A series of tree-planting projects were launched in recent
years, but experts say that these projects have not been very
successful because research into the cause and process of
desertification has been inadequate.
Chen Guangting, an expert from the research institute, said that
90 percent of desert land in China has annual precipitation under
400 mm and most of the deserts don't have the required conditions
for planting trees, except for a few areas with comparatively
abundant rainfall.
Liu Tuo, director of the Sand Prevention and Control Office of
the State Forestry Administration, verified that China is one of
the countries with the most serious desertification problem. Direct
economic losses from desertification are an estimated 54 billion
yuan (US$6.67 billion) a year.
(China.org.cn by Zhang Tingting, April 19, 2006)
