China - 1,000 Lakes Gone In Past 50 Yrs - 75% Of Natural Lakes Algae-Polluted - Xinhua

[hatrack]

NANCHANG, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 1,000 lakes have disappeared over the past 50 years, an average rate of 20 lakes lost each year, said Zhu Guangyao, Vice Minister of State Environmental Protection Administration of China, on Wednesday.

Zhu revealed the figure at the the 11th International Living Lakes Conference held on Wednesday and Thursday in Nanchang, capital of east China's Jiangxi Province. He said 75 percent of China's 20,000 natural lakes and thousands of artificial lakes suffered from algae pollution caused by an influx of waste water containing nitrogen, phosphorus and other harmful substances.

In central China's Hubei Province, known as the "paradise of lakes", 217 lakes with an area larger than one square kilometer have disappeared since the 1950s when 522 large lakes scattered over the province. The total size of natural lakes in Hubei had shrunk to 2,438 square kilometers, 34 percent less than 50 years ago. China has 361,100 square kilometers of lakes and 90,000 square kilometers of wetlands, with a freshwater storage of 226 billion cubic meters.

EDIT

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-11/01/content_5277993.htm

[NNadir]

1. What a wonderful opportunity for biodiesel production.

Always look on the bright side of life.

[phantom power]

2. And extra desert for solar energy production.