The acreage of lakes in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China, has dropped 50 percent over the past five decades, local ecologists said.

They said that based on the relief map of Xinjiang in the early1950s, the acreage of lakes in the region at that time was estimated at 9,700 square kilometers. However, it has declined to 4,700 square kilometers at present. Many famous lakes such as the Lop Nur have dried up since the 1970s.

Experts attributed the decrease to the massive efforts to reclaim land from the desert since the 1950s. To irrigate the newly developed farmland, people have to build reservoirs and ditches on the upper reaches of the lakes, which has resulted in a drop of water flowing into lakes.

Statistics show that extra 41,700 square kilometers of oases have been developed in Xinjiang since 1949.

(Eastday.com 02/25/2001)