A delegation of more than 100 volunteers will head to the Chinese side of the Himalayas in the middle of next month to work on educational and environmental projects in the region, a Tibetan environment official said yesterday.

Sponsored by Hewlett Packard and DuPont, the group will be one of the first to visit the region after it reopens to tourists, the official, named Baqiong, said.

One key task for the volunteers is to help develop long-distance learning capabilities at a primary school on a Himalayan mountainside to enable its students to follow programs run by city-based schools.

Although tourist groups have been advised not to visit Tibet after the riots last month, individuals have been permitted to visit the Chinese side of Mount Qomolangma, Baqiong, who works for the Tibetan science and technology commission, which oversees environmental issues in the Himalayas, said.

"The greatest problem facing the area is environmental. The Himalayas are being exposed to increasing levels of pollution as a result of the development and growing population," he said.

(China Daily April 24, 2008)