China has achieved remarkable progress in the conservation of water and soil in recent years. The area of soil erosion under control has widened from 20,000 square kilometers in the early 90's to the present 40,000 - 50,000 square kilometers. The existing measurement enables the prevention of 1.5 billion tons of soil erosion, bringing 18 billion kg more yields of grains. Up to the end of 2005, the soil erosion area under comprehensive control accumulated to 920,000 square kilometers, contributing to 1/10 of the national territory. This is known from a recent symposium held to mark the 15th anniversary of the publishing of "Law of Water and Soil conservation."

Mr. E Jingping, Vice Minister of Water Resources who introduced the conservation of water and soil has stepped into a stage of legitimization. From 1996, China has approved and implemented over 230,000 programs to conserve water and soil with an input of 60 billion, and managed to prevent and treat soil erosion area of 70,000 square km, and reduced 1.6 billion of soil loss.

He also said the work is still arduous. There is still 3.56 million square kilometers of soil erosion waiting to be treated, and more than 2 million square kilometers of this requires urgent treatment. According to the present speed of treatment, approximately half a century is needed to achieve initial success. The tendency of man-made soil erosion to intensify has not properly been addressed yet.

By People's Daily Online