China has made substantial progress in water and soil conservation by exercising control over 370,000 square kilometers of land.

In addition to foreign investments of 3.6 billion yuan (US$433 million), 25 billion yuan (US$3 billion) from local governments and various social circles has been spent in improving agricultural production conditions, ecological environment and local people's living conditions.

The Chinese Ministry of Water Resources has focused on water and soil conservation in the reservoir area of the Three Gorges dam, the world's largest hydropower project on the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

The Three Gorges area's silt level has decreased by 60 percent in recent years.

(CRI April 5, 2005)