An urgent project to transfer water to the lower reaches of the Tarim River is underway in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
In June, the project ensured that once again, water flowed through the dried-up lower reaches.
The 2,500-kilometer-long Tarim River is China's longest inland river. Due to excessive damming, deforestation, and over-exploitation of the water for irrigation, the Tarim valley suffers from ecological imbalance, and the river keeps on shrinking.
The project to reverse this situation should be completed in three years. It includes ecological protection, water-saving irrigation, river course treatment and flood control.