Xinhua news agency
February 10, 2006

New data on sedimentation show ‘the ecological system along the Yangtze River has obviously improved,’ Xinhua says. ‘We still face a tough task in … consolidating the current achievements,’ a hydrologist is quoted as saying.

Wuhan: Environmental protection schemes along China’s longest river have been hailed a success after the latest hydrological study revealed silt levels in the Yangtze [Chang Jiang] were dropping. The new figures are considered a turning point after 50 years of increasing silt content, according to Yue Zhongming, director of the Hydrological Bureau of the Yangtze River Water Resources Committee (YRWRC). China began to monitor the Yangtze River in 1920s. Continuous observation by 329 monitoring stations along the river revealed that the average sand content per cubic meter in the Yichang section, which carries the largest amount of sand in the trunk stream, is now 0.83 kg, less than the average level of 1.14 kg from 1950 to 2000. Pingshan section, a key sand-yielding area in the river’s upper reaches, now has 1.54 kg of sand per cubic metre, lower than the 50-year average of 1.76 kg. Monitoring stations along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River also report a silt content drop ranging from 7.4 to 24.7 per cent. The statistics prove that the ecological system along the Yangtze River has obviously improved, thanks to a series of effective protection efforts by the Chinese government, said Professor Ji Xuewu, a hydrologist specializing in the Yangtze River. The 6,300-km Yangtze River, the third longest in the world, has more than 400 million people living along its banks. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) produced by all the regions along the river accounted for over 40 per cent of China’s total by the end of 2000. Increasing soil erosion in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River from the mid-20th century has posed a severe threat to China’s flood control efforts, shipping industry and the lives and livelihoods of people living nearby.