Provinces along the Haihe River basins have made a plan to spend 30 years to recover the deteriorating regional ecological condition, said a local official for water resource protection on Tuesday.  

Lin Chao, deputy director of the Haihe River Water Conservancy Committee, said they selected the ecological condition of the early 1970s as the target to reach, based upon that it is comparatively better and can be achieved through hard work.

According to Lin, excessive water utilization in the basins has caused severe eco-environmental problems, such as water breaks in the watercourse, marshland disappearing, and the volume of water to sea reducing severely.

"The exploitation rate of water resources in the Haihe River basins is 98 percent, as against the internationally accepted level of 40 percent," he said.

Lin is confident of reaching the goal within the planned period through an integrated administration of water resources, water-saving and pollution-preventing programs, and supplementing of water from the South-North Water Diversion Project.

The Haihe River basins, located in north China, includes Beijing and Tianjin municipalities, much of north China's Hebei Province, as well as parts of five other provinces, covering a total area of 318,000 square kilometers.

(Xinhua News Agency June 11, 2004)