China's lakes have been shrinking dramatically and seeing more floods as people turn large tracts of lakeside grassland into farmland and extracting the water in tributaries to irrigate the croplands. As a result the nation witnesses an average of 20 natural lakes disappear from the earth each year, according to a latest report released by the State Forestry Administration.

In recent 50 years, nearly 1000 natural lakes have disappeared in central and eastern China when the lakeside grassland was turned to farmland, with the converted area equaling to the total of the nation's five biggest freshwater lakes, statistics said. Now only 83 lakes are left for the Hubei Province, a "province of thousand lakes" who once boasted 1052 lakes in the 50s of last century. The disappearance of lakes has directly cut short the water reserve for big rivers and the risk of blood rise, and this has become a key element holding back the economic development of lake areas.

In the western area, a large batch of lakes have dried up or turned into salt ones due to lack of water sources, strong evaporation and large extraction of water in tributaries, the reported pointed out. Except for the renowned Lop-nor, the east and west Juyan lakes have both been reduced into a stretch of deserts. The Manas Lake in the east of Junggar Basin, which once covered an area of 577.8 square meters, also became saline land and deserts.

Lake is an important type of wetland and also a part of land ecological system, expert said. With economic development and strong interference of human activities China's lake resources have been seriously damaged with those in the west dried up and those in the east polluted.

Deterioration of lake environment has caused frequent floods and thus become an element holding back sustainable development of economy. Now the nation is making efforts to change the situation by returning the converted farmland to lakes.

(People's Daily October 21, 2002)