The descent in the water level of Qinghai Lake, China's biggest salt-water lake, has been mainly caused by many years of dry weather and greater evaporation rather than man-made damage, according to a Chinese scientist here in Xining, capital of Qinghai Province.
The annual rate of evaporation and artificial water consumption from the lake in past years has been 4.1 billion cubic meters on average, but the amount of inflow into the lake has only been 3.7 billion cubic meters annually, said Ma Haizhou, a researcher at the Salt Lake Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who added that the consumption of locals contributed only one or two percent of the total water loss.
Qinghai Lake, located 3,200 meters above sea level on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, covers 4,000 square km, which is almost as big as the Salt Lake in Utah of the United States.
The water level of the lake dropped by 11.7 percent in the period between 1908 and 2000. Ma attributed the drop in the water level to the long period of dry weather in the region.
However, the scientist admitted excessive land reclamation led to deterioration of the lake's environment.
(Xinhua News Agency November 5, 2001)
