China’s great yellow dragons

Press, 13 June 1986, Page 16

China’s great yellow dragons

By

GRAHAM EARNSHAW,

of Reuter, io Lianzhou

Like great yellow dragons/the deserts of north and western China are stretching their wings and devouring arable land faster than mankind can stop therm Experts at . Desert Research Institute 7 , .here say deserts already: occupy 15 / per cent of China’s total area and are growing by about 1000 square kilometres (400 square miles) a year, largely because of neglect and overuse of water resources. China’s biggest deserts are the Gobi, stretching along the northern border, and the Taklamakan in the far west, whose shifting sands are famous for having swallowed many cities over the past 2000 years. In the local language, Taklamakan means: "You go in, you don’t come out.” In the 19505, the Chinese Govrenment had grandiose plans for rolling back the deserts and making a garden out of the remote border regions. Now officials are more concerned about preserving existing farmland than about creating more. “Things are going to get worse before they get better,” said the institute’s Vice-Director, Professor Di Xinmin. “Oases along the southern edge of the Taklamakan will have especially serious water problems and some more oases may even disappear.” The deserts have been spreading for many centuries.

“The historical records indicate the areas along the ancient Silk Road in west China were once very prosperous,” Professor Di said. “But nowadays, we can find few of the places mentioned in the historical documents. All has been covered by the shifting sands.” The evidence indicates the deserts have been growing faster than ever in recent decades. Professor Di said human misuse of water resources was largely to blame but added that the climate of Central Asia appeared to be undergoing a long-term change —- becoming drier. The Lop Nor lake, once one of the mightiest bodies of water in Central Asia, shows the seriousness of the problem. It no longer exists. Chinese researchers visiting the Lop Nor area at the eastern edge of the Taklamakan in the early 1980 s were shocked to find the bodies of millions of birds littering the dry, lifeless landscape which until the early 1970 s had been a large lake. The Chinese Government has moved millions of people into the border regions since the early 1950 s and use of the scant water resources available has grown out of control. Other factors which have helped feed the deserts are overgrazing of grasslands, the wholesale destruction of forests for firewood, and over-cultiva-tion.

The late Chairman Mao Tsetung must bear a large portion of the . blame for the advances made by the deserts. In the 1960 s he called on all parts of the country to grow grain, regardless of-whether they were suitable or not, thereby destroying the ecological balance of large areas of land. Officials admit the Government’s agricultural policies for most of the last three decades have actively encouraged the expansion of the deserts; but in the last few years a start has been made at controlling them. - ' The Government has ordered that a "Great Green Wall" of trees be planted across the north of the country to protect arable land. Efforts are also being made to stop the waste of water and the indiscriminate felling ? of trees. < < Asked if the amount of money being spent by the Government to keep the deserts at bay was sufficient, Professor Di said: “In terms of the amount of mbney China has available, I am satisfied with the support we are getting from the Government. “But in terms of the amount needed, I am not satisfied. China is still a poor country. It is not possible to give too much money to this effort at present.” Given the size of the problem and the resources China has available to deal with it, Professor Di is pessimistic about stopping the deserts in the next couple of decades.