Ecosystem worsens despite efforts in China (5)

Another priority is to channel more water to the Lake Aibi. The routes of Yili River tributaries can be altered to flow into the lake. With more economic use of upstream waters, the once cut-off rivers and underground water will be able to replenish themselves and feed into Lake Aibi, explained Huang.

Li believes the nature reserve administration may also draw experience from water conservation projects on Xinjiang's Bosten Lake and Tarim River, the country's largest inland freshwater lake and longest inland river respectively. Both are seeing a slowly improving ecological environment.

According to a survey on China's water quality, water volume and biological resource by Chinese Academy of Sciences, 243 lakes have disappeared in the past 50 years, one fourth of them located in Xinjiang.

Currently, Xinjiang has 114 lakes of more than one square km. They add up to 6,400 square km, which account for about 7.7 percent of the total lake area of the whole country.

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