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| Policy News - December 21, 2001 |
Help to stem Yangtze River flooding
Officials from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Chinese government soon will introduce conservation techniques and early warning systems to reduce flooding on the longest river in Asia, the Yangtze.
According to UNEP, devastating floods on the Yangtze in 1998 killed 3600 people, and destroyed 5.7 million homes. The flooding cost China $31 billion. Activities including deforestation and overgrazing, a decline in lakes and wetlands, and rising erosion rates affect the river so that it rises higher, flows faster, and floods more violently, say UNEP officers.
In a pilot project, scientists from UNEP, the Chinese State Environmental Protection Administration and the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences will select a few Ecosystem Functions Conservation Areas (EFCAs) in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze. Together with local governments, they will monitor environmental indicators, such as water retention, surface runoff, soil erosion, land-use plans, and population size and distribution, to help them design early warning systems for floods using remote-sensing techniques and satellite imagery. Later, a large-scale project will increase the number of EFCAs.
The Global Environment Facility, an international government-sponsored fund, is likely to approve the $554,000 pilot phase this month. Work on the full project, which will cost $10M, is due to start in May 2003. —MARIA BURKE |
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