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TV Serial Stresses Yellow River ProtectionParched land craving for water, thirsty people waiting for tap water, and polluted river banks longing for cleaning are highlights of the nine-part TV serial " Saving the Yellow River".The series, part of which was first shown at a press conference here today, is aimed at letting Chinese people know what their " mother river" is now suffering. The drought period along the river is getting longer every year --a record 226 days in 1997. Moreover, 11 power plants on its upper and middle reaches are now unable to operate efficiently owing to a lack of water. Sociologists and experts in hydraulics point out in the program that overuse of water for farmland irrigation and industry is a major cause of the shortage of water in the area. In 1998 a report by the Chinese Academy of Sciences warned that the drying up of the Yellow River is becoming more serious, and might even result in the shifting of the channel on the lower reaches. The river is the "mother river" of the Chinese nation, as it was on the banks of the river that Chinese civilization first arose. Publicity activities to raise public awareness and efforts to increase the green coverage rate along the river by planting trees and returning farmland to grassland have been carried out nationwide in the last two years. The Yellow River flows through Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, which are all included in the Western China Development Strategy. About 161 million ha of pasture in the river's source area, Madoi County in Qinghai Province, is now rapidly degenerating, accounting for 70 percent of the county's total grassland. It supplies nearly 49 percent of the river's water volume. Moreover, the 640,000-sq km Loess Highlands is the area with the most serious water and soil erosion in the world. Improvement of the environmental conditions along the river has been set by the Central government as one of the key tasks in the project. Only thus can China achieve sustainable economic and social development, said Wang Xianjin, a deputy to the National People's Congress and an expert on environmental protection.
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