The State Forestry Administration (SFA) said that China's sandstorm sources are expanding.

An engineer of an institution affiliated to SFA stated that sandstorm sources on the Chinese mainland are expanding along with the waterhead recession of inland river valleys in China's northwest regions and the fall of underground water level in some areas.

Since this spring, sandstorms have swept half of China. On May 17, a sandstorm hit Beijing with 300,000 tons of dust and cast a yellow veil over the whole city.

The engineer explained that the exploitation and utilization of water resources in China further aggregate the current situation and even change river courses. Where the riverheads shrink, new sandstorm sources come into being.

For example, Talimu River in Xinjiang is a zoological river preventing the desert from approaching. However, the water volume of its upper reach is declining at present, which makes the lower reach green zone shrink and the sandstorm source there further expand.

Besides, lack of water causes wild plants to wither. This and desertification further enlarge sandstorm sources. Investigations show that in a sandstorm source in Gansu Province in Northwest China, the underground water level keeps descending year by year and 350,000 mu (57,750 hectares) of wild plants are dead or dying for lack of water.

On the grasslands of central China, successive droughts in recent years and the unrestrained trample of cattle and sheep made 1,000 square kilometers of land turn into desert every year.

Editor: Yan