Senior Chinese legislator Chen Zhili on Monday called for greater legislative powers to stop lake water pollution and to prevent lakes from disappearing.

Chen, vice chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, made the comment in an address to the 13th World Lake Conference that opened Monday in Wuhan, known as "the city of a hundred lakes".

Chen called for the establishment of special lake protection laws and regulations and implementation of strict judicial and administrative means in the management and supervision of industrial, agricultural and household waste, especially that of highly-contaminating facilities such as paper mills and chemical plants.

Lakes, a key element in sustaining ecological balance, remained fragile in the face of rapid industrial growth and increasing human activities, which led to serious contamination and shrinkage that in turn threatened people's living environment, she said.

In China, an average of 20 lakes disappeared every year, and almost 90 percent of the lakes were polluted, she said.

The central Hubei Province, once known as "a province with 1,000 lakes," had just 2,438 square kilometers of lakes left, about 34 percent of the figure in the 1950s.

The shrinkage of lakes, water pollution and the degradation of ecological functions were urgent reasons to adopt scientific development of lakeside industries and to restrain the scale and type of production within the capacity of the ecological system to allow lakes to rehabilitate.

Efforts must be taken to further restructure economic development and to eradicate outdated production methods that consumed enormous natural resources and produced massive waste, a main challenge to the fresh water ecological system, she said.

Chen called on at least 1,500 delegates from more than 40 countries attending the conference to exchange views and offer valuable proposals for lake protection and restoration.

The event runs until Thursday under the theme, "For the Rehabilitation of our Lakes: Global Challenges and Chinese Innovations."