Experts Warn Against Erosion of Black Soil in Northeast ChinaExperts of water and soil conservation warned that if serious efforts are not made to prevent water and soil erosion of the vast black soil land in northeast China, the black soil layer there may disappear within 50 years.Experts from the Ministry of Water Resources said the black soil in northeast China's Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces, covering 117,800 square kilometers, faces a serious soil erosion problem. They attributed the deterioration of the black soil land to human activities and natural disasters. The black soil land in northeast China, one of the world's three black soil zones, is one of China's major grain production bases. This area sells 10 billion kilograms of crops to the government annually. Statistics from the Ministry of Water Resources indicated that the water and soil erosion space of the black soil land in northeast China has reached 44,700 square kilometers, accounting for 37.9 percent of the total black soil land. Water and soil erosion there also led to an increasing number of disasters such as floods, droughts and sand storms. A key factor in the heavy flooding of the Songhua River and Nenjiang River in 1998 was the serious water and soil erosion in the upper and middle parts of the two rivers. |
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