Xinhua Daily Telegraph (Extract)

20th Sep 2005

Lying at the source of the Yangtze, Qumalai county never used to lack for water. But in recent years rivers have dried up, the water table has fallen, and the glaciers have retreated. The inhabitants live at the source of a river, yet they find themselves having to pay for water to drink.

In the county town tractors loaded with water start to patrol the streets at 10am. Residents pick up their buckets and stand by their doors, waiting for the water-sellers to drive by. One owner of a small restaurant told us that at 3Y a bucket, even water has become a significant expense for him.

Agongbaoxia comes from Huzhu County , far from Qumalai. He heard there was money to be made selling water here, so he came to join relatives here and has been a water-seller for a year now. "My relatives live in Qumalai, and they've got a 30-meter well but nobody strong enough to work it. So I came over from Huzhu to sell water." Every day he drives into town with his tractor laden with water for sale.

Dried-up, locked-up wells are a common sight in the town. Once known as ' China 's Water Tower', Qumalai used to have 136 wells. By the year 2000 all but eight had dried up and 80% of the population had to buy water. The Tibetan elders will tell you that twenty years ago, when the town was relocated here, you could choose any place, dig for three or four meters, and water would gush out. The extent to which the water table has fallen in only 20 years is incredible. One resident claims that digging a well is no longer a mere matter of money - his friend spent twenty thousand yuan drilling a shaft more than twenty meters deep, but still failed to find water.

Qumalai County Party Vice-Secretary Zhu Hongguang says that severe drop in the water table is not the only problem. Of the 30 rivers in the county, 18 tributaries of the Yangtze have dried up and 20% of the counties 52,500 square kilometers of land has become desert.

Wu Sugong, researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Biological Research Center in Kunming , lead a team of researchers to Kekexili in 1991, and visited Geladandong, where the Yangtze originates. On that trip glaciologist Li Shijie compared materials from aerial surveys in 1970 with on the spot measurements and concluded that the Gangjiaquba glacier had retreated by half a kilometer. He also published photographs clearly showing the extent of the glacier.

Last summer Wu Sugong and other CAS scientists returned to the source of the Yangtze. Comparing those photographs with the current situation he found that the glacier had moved again. As he had no instruments he paced off the distance the glacier had receded. "I walked 1820 paces, at three paces a meter that's 600 meters. Then a local walked the rest of the way for me. His stride is longer than mine and he took 350 paces, divided by two that's 175 meters. Add the two distances and you have 775 meters. This method isn't entirely accurate, but I reckon the glacier has receded by about 750 meters."

Experts believe this is caused by two factors - a lack of water and global warming. Wu Sugong visited the meteorological station at Tuotuohe. Data showed that the air temperature over the last five years has risen, while precipitation has fallen. Annual average air temperature has risen from t -4 degrees Celcius to -2.8. Climatic factors are causing the source of the Yangtze to dry up, and the situation is worsening.