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Xinjiang Speeds Up Development of Air Water Resources
The project of "artificial water-adding comprehensive technology research in areas of Xinjiang's Tianshan Mountain" will soon begin implementation. Research result of this project will provide technological support for the further exploitation of air water resources.
It is reported that, the project, scheduled for two years, will be carried out in Nanshan mountain area on the upper reaches of the Urumqi River. The meteorological department will, through study of this project, explore ways for full exploitation and utilization of air water resources in arid, and semi-arid areas like Xinjiang, thereby providing new technological models for alleviating the shortage of local surface water resources and improving the feeble ecological environment here.
Most parts of Xinjiang are located in arid or semi-arid areas, due to the shortage of water resources and man-made destruction, the local eco-environment is further deteriorating. Desertification is spreading at an annual rte of 350 sq km, nearly two-thirds of the land and over 12 million people are under threats. At the same time, sandstorm is taking an upward trend year by year, the floating dust caused by sandstorm has drifted to the regions in north China, the limited surface runoff of Xinjiang can hardly moisten the broad land, and the infiltration-proof project for oasis irrigation also restricts desert ecological protection.
However, Xinjiang is rich in vapor in the air, which totals 1.38 trillion cubic meters annually and only 17.6 percent of it fall on the ground in the form of rain or snow, leaving nearly five-sixths water resource in the air exploitable. Suppose that another 1 percent of vapor in the air falls on the ground in the form of rain or snow each year through the technology of artificial water-adding, the water resource will see an increase of 14 billion cubic meters, equal to one-sixth of the present surface runoff of Xinjiang.
Meteorological sources show that Xinjiang once conducted experiment with artificial water- adding at the early 1960s, practice has proved it to be of low cost and high efficiency.
By PD Online staff member Deng Gang
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