China to Step Up Protection of Source of YangtzeThis year China will launch a preventive scheme at the source of the country's mighty Yangtze River to advance soil and water conservancy, and protect the ecological environment there.Sources from Yangtze River Water Conservancy Committee, which is based in Wuhan, the provincial capital of Hubei Province, said under that scheme, more stations for monitoring water and soil conservancy, changes in ecological environment, will be built near the source of the Yangtze River. Publicity of relevant laws and regulations will be intensified and human acts that are destructive to soil and water conservancy will be dealt with severely. Some small-scale preventive engineering programs will be tried in the areas suffering from soil erosion. Yangtze, with a length of 6,300 kilometers, is China's longest river. It runs through Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, and shanghai before it eventually flows into the East China Sea at Shanghai. Due to increased human activities at the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River, including the random felling of trees and damaging vegetation, the water in the river has become more muddy and is feared by many to become another Yellow River which are famed for serious silting in the main stream. Over the past 12 years, China has spent more than 1.5 billion yuan (about 181 million US dollars) to finance projects in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze to prevent soil erosion and improve the ecological environment in the Yangtze River Valley. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/ |