Law Enforcement Prevents Soil ErosionAn unprecedented erosion-control program involving a massive 21.9 billion yuan (2.7 billion US dollars) in the past decade has helped to save 380,000 square kilometers from potential devastation, according to a Beijing-based English newspaper.Thanks to the effective implementation of the Soil and Water Conservation Law over the past 10 years, protection efforts of land at risk from the potentially degradation was safeguarded, Friday's China Daily quoted Chen Lei, vice-minister of water resources as saying. Soil erosion causes the loss of 5 billion tons of fertile soil each year and damages an estimated 70,000 hectares of cultivated land throughout the country, the newspaper said. China has listed erosion-control as one of the state's top priorities since 1991, in a bid to turn more barren land into green areas. Chen said that since 1998, the area of land improved by the measures amounted to some 50,000 square kilometers each year. The program has been effectively enforced both in west China and some mideast regions, where water and soil erosion has exacerbated against a backdrop of rapid economic growth and urbanization, according to the newspaper. Nearly 70,000 square kilometers of eroded land have been improved along the Yangtze River, including more than 1.1 million hectares of erosion-prone slope lands. So far, 600,000 hectares of such lands have been turned into woodland or grasslands, said Chen. As a result, the vegetation rate has been increase from 26 percent a decade ago to the current 46 percent, China Daily reported. |
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