Environment: China's critical soil erosion problem

Having spent a wonderful time with the New South Wales Soil Conservation Service, before it merged with the pen pushing, wouldn't work in an iron-lung, half-wits at the Department of Lands, this is a story I found particularly interesting.

China's Ministry of Water Resources, has reported that China is suffering severe soil erosion in four areas. The areas identified are: "the central route" project of the northbound water diversion project, the north-eastern part, the north-western three-river headwaters and the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

According to the report,soil erosion in the Danjiangkou Reservoir area, covers an area of 39,500 sq km, accounting for 41.5 percent of the area's territory.

E Jingping, vice minister of water resources, said: "The Danjiangkou Reservoir has been playing a crucial part in providing Beijing and Tianjin's safe potable water. Northeast China is a major 'bread basket' and the three-river headwaters area is described as 'China's water tank' ".

There is an interesting article on the Danjiangkou Reservoir, in China Heritage Newsletter. It describes how -

"By 1974 Danjiangkou Reservoir had filled, forming Asia's largest man-made lake, and the surrounding area was a depopulated wasteland with little remaining infrastructure. Many sites lay below the surface of the lake, including the Taoist temple known as Jingle Palace, of which only stone carvings remain today. The temple was the most important of the eight Taoist temples of Wudangshan. The Wudangshan Taoist temple complex was listed by UNESCO as a natural and cultural world heritage site in 1994, and is described on the UNESCO website as representing "the highest standards of Chinese art and architecture over nearly 1,000 years".