The reserve will make possible the exercising of effective monitoring on the deteriorated environment around the 500-square-kilometer lake, said an official with the regional environmental protection bureau.

Formed in the Quaterary Period, the Ebinur Lake has gradually been turned from a fresh water lake into a salt lake as a result of the warmer climate and water shrinkage. The water surface of the lake reduced at an annual rate of 22.6 sq. km. in the past decade and was reduced to 1,200 sq. km in the early 1950s, only one third of its original size.

Li Xialing, a local ecologist, said, "Owing to rapid population growth and farmland expansion in recent years, the amount of water flown into Ebinur Lake each year reduced by three fourth to less than 700 million cubic meters."

Statistics show that approximately 40 sq. km of land turned into desert in each of the past few years due to degeneration of the environment around the lake.

(People’s Daily 11/02/2000)