Official: Hope dim for eliminating sandstorms
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-10-09 07:18

Sandstorms will not vanish in China and increasing green coverage is the only resort, said an official with the State Forestry Administration (SFA), Saturday.

A sandstorm hits Hohhot, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region April 27, 2005. [newsphoto]

"As a natural phenomena, sandstorms are decided by the climate and the earth's surface ," said Liu Tuo, a SFA official in charge of desertification control, at a press conference.

Sandstorms can be triggered by strong winds and large barren surfaces which provide abundant sand, he explained.

Situated in the central-Asia sandstorm region, one of the world's four largest sandstorm regions, China now has more than 1.74 million square kilometers of desertification areas, only 530,000 square kilometers of which can be curbed, and the remaining 1.2 million square kilometers are desert and gobi, a series of shallow alkaline basins that serve as the major source of sandstorms hitting northern China.

In China, the areas of frequent sandstorms are mainly in the Taklimakan Desert and nearby areas in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and other deserts in Ningxia, Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia, said Liu, adding that sandstorm sourcing areas are not only in China, but also outside the country.

He noted that China has made remarkable progress in curbing sandstorms, the occurrence of which has reduced in the last two years.

China will redouble efforts to curb 11 million hectares of desertifying areas in the 2006-2010 period, he added.