SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING CONDITIONS ON DESERTIFICATION IN WESTERN CHINA
中国西部治理沙漠化的战略思考与建议

The uplift of the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau resulted drought and water deficiency in Western China. Large-scale land desertification and barbaric sandstorms were induced by natural factors and human activities which are one of the factors of ecology unbalance, such as reclaiming grassland into farmland, building reservoirs and channels, and irrigating too much. The Qinghai-Xizang Plateau uplift occurs grassification firstly, then desertification in Western China. According to this rule we should abandon cultivation to recover the grassland and develop stock raising instead of immoderation reclamation during exploiting of Western China. Since 1960~70s, many middle and little size reservoirs were built at middle and lower reaches of the Tarim river and the Hei river for exploiting agriculture in Xinjiang and Hexi Corridor. Because of saving surface and underground water, these reservoirs break the original ecological environment, and bring on the waste of surface evaporation, farther result in the shortage of lower reaches and the death of Populus euphratica forest in large areas, also including the drying up of Lop Nur and Juyan lake. Sandstorms are originated from the desertification of Ejin Qin. How do we revise this vicious circle and recover the original ecological balance in Northwest China and diminish the desertification finally? The ecological environment is very fragile in the region of Northwest China in which the evaporating capacity is more than 600~800mm, therefore it is very important to utilize the water resource scientifically and continently. Thus we should build high-mountain reservoirs at the Kunlun Mountain and South Tianshan and Qilian Mountains, the upstream of Talimu river and Hei river is located respectively. The water can be transported to the lower reaches hermetically by the tunnel pipe. Moreover on one hand we can generate electricity by the hydraulic current, but on the other hand we can satisfy the farmland water and plant hillside grassland and avoid the evaporation ultimately. Thus it can be seen that building this kind of high-mountain reservoirs and transporting-pipes should be brought into the national development plan and actualize as the system repair project involving many provinces.