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China to Popularize Water Saving Technologies in Yellow River Irrigated Areas
China will invest six billion yuan (about US$723 million) to popularize water saving technologies in the Hetao irrigated area of the Yellow River in the coming 15 years, according to the government of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
As the birth place of the Chinese nation, the Yellow River has been called by Chinese as the "mother river" for several thousand years. However, 18 consecutive years of seasonal drying-up of the river has set emergency alert to the nation.
The main cause of the river's seasonal drying-up, according to Chinese experts of water conservancy, may be the severe waste of its water resources, the ecological environment destruction, the exhaustion of water sources, and the warmer climate.
The water saving technologies to be adopted in the Hetao irrigated area on the top of the river's Great Bend include spraying and drip-drip irrigation methods and the use of drought resistant crop breeds. China plans to reduce the annual water consumption on the 570,000 hectares of land in Hetao from 5.2 billion cubic meters to 4 billion cubic meters by 2010.
China has earmarked over 20 million yuan (nearly US$2.5 million) on building a water saving demonstration region in Hetao.
Inner Mongolia also plans to increase the price for irrigation water from the present 0.01 yuan per cubic meter to 0.05 yuan. The Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Gansu Province in the Yellow River Valleys will also follow suit.
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