Soil Erosion Endangers China's Longest RiverThe 6,300 km long Yangtze River, the longest river in China and the third longest on Earth, is now suffering its worst ever soil erosion problems.A number of experts working on soil erosion control projects along the Yangtze River said during a recent on-site interview that this problem has become a "big headache" for the social and economic growth of the river basin area. "As much as 41.1 percent of the river basin area, or 740,000 sq km of land, suffers from soil erosion problems," said Shi Liren, a leading expert. "Every year the whole river basin area loses 2.24 billion tons of soil, damaging one million mu (67,000 hectare) of cultivable land," he added. For the Chinese, the Yangtze River is not only one of the major rivers in history, but it has also long been a clean river whose both banks are covered by green plants. However, with the booming population and short-sighted economic exploitation, things have changed in the past two decades and now, for many experts, the Yangtze River has become another "Yellow River" in China. In fact, according to experts, the Yangtze River is not the only river that is facing big soil erosion problems. "Soil erosion has become the major environmental problem in China," said Qu Geping, one of China's top legislators and known as a pioneer environmentalist. But for Qu and his followers, the good news is that the government and more and more people have taken effective action to control the soil erosion problem. "In some areas, the government's efforts have gained good results, with more barren hills being re-planted with trees and soil erosion having been basically put under control," Qu said. "The tomorrow of the Yangtze River and the 400 million people living along it will live on what we are doing today," Qu said. |
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