The desert is moving in on China

Friday, 27 November 2009 00:00

Every day, the sand is eating its way closer and closer to the Lu family in China’s north-west province of Gansu, an area threatened by desertification. Water shortage, sandstorms and droughts are everyday challenges for the family, writes Lene Winther on www.facetheclimate.org.

Lene Winther visited the Lu family in the village of Zhenxin in Minqin which is feeling the effects climate change first hand.

One hour every fifth day the running water is turned on in the village. Nobody knows when the water comes, the only thing Han Yu Hua, the mother of the family, can do is to watch her hose and wait – just like the others who live in the village. The water is disappearing in all of Minqin which used to be a thriving oasis nourished by the Shiyang River.

Today, this is one of the driest places in China, and people in the area are fighting to keep the area from being eaten by the desert which pushes in from three sites – Tengger in east and Badain Jaran from the north and west. Almost 95 per cent of Minqin’s 16,000 square kilometres is today made up of desert, Winther writes.

Numbers from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification shows that 27 per cent of China is covered by desert, and every year the desert consumes an average of 2,460 square kilometres of land.

Living with the sand in the backyard

For several generations, the Lu family has tried to keep the sand away from their house by planting trees and bushes. However, the situation has only gone worse, and experts estimate that every year the desert moves yet another 8-10 metres. This means that still more powerful sandstorms, droughts and water shortages are something the family face every single day.

The biggest challenge, however, remains the water. 50 years ago the underground water was only a couple of metres below the surface of the earth, and you could dig down to the water yourself, Lu Xiang Ning, the father of the family, explains to Lene Winther. Now it takes machines to reach the water and several places in Minqin you will have to dig several hundred metres to find water.

The water the family gets tastes of salt, and it needs to be carefully boiled before you can drink it, otherwise you risk getting liver diseases or worm, says Han Yu Hua. Through the years she has learned to make the sparse water suffice. The family never showers. The water used for cleaning the vegetables is also used for cleaning hands, and the water used to do the dishes is afterwards used for the animals.

From oasis to desert

Environment activist Ma Jun He explains to Winther that the environmental catastrophe in Minqin is due to a mixture of human made and natural factors. More extreme winds, still more rare rainfalls, and long periods of droughts have accelerated the desertification of Minqin.

Earlier this year, scientists from the Chinese Academy of Science in the Gansu province’s capital Lanzhou published a report saying that the desertification in the northern areas of China is most likely due to be worsened by global warming.

Another reason is overpopulation. In the fifties and sixties people went to Minqin in large numbers because of the fertility of the oasis. However, the large increases in population created a huge need for water to cultivate the land, and today the surface water has almost disappeared. The water is now collected from the subsurface in the nearby Hongyashan water reserve, which dried out for a period in 2004.

Meanwhile, the level of the ground water has been descending by one half to a whole metre a year for the past 20 years. Tens of thousands of people have already left the area, and the British NGO Oxfam writes that at least 32,000 people in Minqin have lost their land and livelihood due to desertification.

Government initiatives

A couple of years ago, the government wanted the Lu family to move. However, the government changed its mind and ordered the family to change their livelihood in stead. Before the family used to plant the fields with cotton and fennel, but today they have 25 sheep instead, as these do not need as much water. Furthermore, the parents sometimes take on some extra random work, and the government supports the family economically, which means that their annual income is 14,000 RMB (€1.880). This is approximately the same amount of money the family used to have when they cultivated their land.

The government has launched several information campaigns, writes Lene Winther. Along the roadsides of Minqin, you find large signs with exhortations to economise on water and protect the environment. Here you also see new water saving greenhouses with melons and tomatoes. These have been built with economical support from the government. Methods of watering the fields that are still being cultivated have been changed. Before the farmers used to sprinkle the fields with water, but now buried hoses water the crops in order not to waste so much water because of evaporation. Furthermore, the farmers, like the Lu family, are receiving economical support to start breeding animals instead of cultivating their land.

Facts on desertification

Desertification is the process by which fertile land slowly decompose, in the end leaving only barren deserts. This can be caused both by human made factors and by climate change. According to a report from the UN University, published in 2007, 50 million people risk having to move within the next 10 years because of desertification. The report names desertification as the greatest environmental challenge of our time.

Further reading: www.unccd.int and www.unu.edu

Source: http://www.facetheclimate.org