URUMQI, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has started to discharge water into Tarim River, China's longest inland river, for its ecological restoration.

A total of 350 million cubic meters of water from a reservoir will be discharged to the lower reaches of the river this year, the 20th water diversion since Xinjiang launched the project in 2000, according to the river basin's administration.

Tarim River runs 1,321 km along the rim of the barren Tarim Basin, a sparsely populated area.

Excessive irrigation in the past used too much water, which caused the river's lower reaches to run dry in the early 1970s and push the trees to the verge of disappearance.

So far, Xinjiang has infused about 7.7 billion cubic meters of water to the lower reaches of the Tarim River.

Monitoring results showed that the water conveyance project has alleviated the ecological degradation in the lower reaches of the river. The groundwater level in the area has been greatly raised, and the species and number of animals and plants in the area have also increased.