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Ten research institutes and enterprises will join forces in fighting
sandstorms in an effort to clean the skies in and around Beijing,
a representative from the Ministry of Science and Technology announced
Monday.
Among the 10 are the Beijing Institute of Environmental Protection
Science and the Plant Institute affiliated with the Chinese Academy
of Sciences.
According to the ministry, the organizations will be responsible
for developing anti-desertification technologies and methods for
application in Beijing and Tianjin municipalities, Hebei Province
and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
According to Deng Nan, vice-minister of science and technology,
severe sandstorms have been a rarity in North China throughout most
of the past 50 years; however, this has changed in recent years.
North China was pelted with mixtures of wind and sand 12 times this
past spring.
According to the ministry, the sandstorms are coming from rapidly
expanding deserts in China's northeastern areas.
In August, the ministry invited domestic enterprises and research
institutes to help work out a way to stop the process of desertification
and put an end to the sandstorms.
The ministry finally selected the group of 10 organizations and
Deng called on them to develop methods of fighting desertification
that would also benefit the rural economy, such as turning the afforestation
process into a regional industry that would employ farmers.
In its science and technology plan for the 10th Five-Year Plan
Period (2001-05), the ministry has described anti-desertification
as one of its most important tasks, Deng explained.
The ministry plans to organize relevant governmental departments
to increase green coverage in northwest parts of the country, such
as Qinghai and Gansu provinces, Ningxia Hui and Xinjiang Uygur autonomous
regions, according to the ministry's Department for Rural and Social
Development.
According to statistics, 51 percent of the land in these regions
is desert, accounting for 57 percent of the country's total.
(China Daily 11/28/2000)
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