China will hold a public bidding for a project to clean up Dianchi Lake here in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province in southwest China.

The bidding will invite international participants to find an effective way to uproot the blue-green algae rampant in the lake, and then to control all the sources of pollution in an area of about 300 square kilometers around the lake, especially that from pesticides, according to Li Jiating, governor of Yunnan Province.

The result of the bidding is expected to be announced in mid-March. The Ministry of Science and Technology and the Yunnan Science and Technology Commission will jointly handle the entire bidding process.

Dianchi Lake, a famous scenic spot on a high plateau covering 307 square kilometers, is China's sixth-largest freshwater lake, and plays a key role in balancing the ecological environment in Kunming, known as the City of Spring.

However, the lake's water has become murky from the large amount of industrial and domestic waste discharged into it over the last 20 years, and fast-increasing algae, the growth of which is encouraged by the chemicals and warm waters from sewage and factories, is also clogging it up.

In 1997, the Chinese government listed Dianchi Lake a key part of the "three rivers and three lakes" (Liaohe, Huaihe and Haihe rivers, and Taihu, Chaohu and Dianchi lakes) clearing project.

Since then, the government has earmarked billions of yuan to clean up the deteriorating environment in the lake, and has achieved some good results, said Li Jiating, but completely endingthe pollution will require constant efforts over a long period of time.