China has begun water transfusion to the lower reaches of the Tarim River for the sixth time to save the environment in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.  

The transfusion started in late March, said Liu Ning, chief engineer of the Ministry of Water Resources, Thursday.

The water is pouring into the lower reaches of the river at a speed of 20 cubic meters per minute and some 300 million cubic meters of water will be diverted, he added.

The 1,321 km-long Tarim River runs west to east along the northern edge of the Taklimakan Desert, China's largest desert, and flows into Taitema Lake.

The 320 km section of the lower reaches of the river and Taitema Lake dried up in 1972 because of excessive use for farming irrigation. Chinese tamarisk and poplar forests shrank as the environment worsened.

China diverted water from Baghrash Lake to the lower reaches of the Tarim River five times from April 2000 to November 2003.

(Xinhua News Agency April 2, 2004)