China and Russia have completed water sampling of a border lake, part of a five-year joint project to monitor water quality, Chinese environmental authorities said.

Twenty Russian and Chinese environmental experts collected 30 water samples in the Xingkai Lake, home to more than 2.5 million migratory birds.

Experts said the sampling and analysis were of great significance for the lake water quality improvement.

Under an agreement reached in 2006, China and Russia are to conduct water quality examinations for four rivers and a lake – the Heilongjiang, Wusuli, Ergune and Suifen rivers and Xingkai Lake – to strengthen cross-border pollution controls.

The two countries share about 3,500 kilometers of trans-border water bodies.

(Xinhua News Agency March 19, 2008)