The protection of the ecological environment will be given priority in the reconstruction of the earthquake-ravaged Yushu, which is the fountainhead for China's three major rivers - the Yangtze River, Yellow River and Lancang River, officials said.

"It (Yushu) is an important natural conservation area in China," Zhao Haoming, director of the Qinghai Environmental Protection Bureau, said at a press conference in the Yushu rescue and relief headquarters on Thursday.

"During the reconstruction, we will give full consideration to the ecological environment of the source of the three rivers and its surrounding areas," he said.

An expert team sent by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Qinghai local environmental bureau will head for Yushu to carry out a geological survey and an ecological restoration evaluation, after which they will put forward suggestions for the reconstruction, Zhao said.

In response to the question of whether water burial - a traditional form of burial for Tibetans - may pollute local water, Zhao said the authorities will assure the quality of water in Yushu, adding that water here is clean and up to the national standard.

According to Zhao, sky cremation and water burial are both traditional ways for Tibetans, who comprise approximately 90 percent of Yushu's residents, to dispose of the remains of the dead, though water burial is a less frequently used method.

"Besides, the drinking water of Yushu is mainly from underground water and, after testing, it has proven to be up to standard and safe, " he said.

Moreover, no processing enterprises or oil tank spillages are known to have taken place in Yushu, where no industry or enterprise is in operation.

"But we are concerned about how garbage could be properly handled to avoid water pollution," Zhao said.

In previous days, garbage from the temporary shelters in Yushu was scattered everywhere, but now the situation is under control, with the relief work gradually establishing order and the publicity raising people's awareness of the need to protect the environment.

In the temporary shelter of the armed police, there are 200 Tibetan earthquake survivors living in 30 tents, most of whom have taken care to clean up after themselves and to properly dispose of the garbage they have produced, such as biscuit wrappers, fast food bags and empty bottles.

Karsung Chogyal, a 16-year-old Tibetan girl who lives with her parents in a tent said: "Each time after eating, we will put our garbage into the big bag outside the tent for the armed police to take away. "