shrinking lake

It’s a little concerning, this piece in the 新京报/The Beijing News. A lake in Xinjiang has shrunk to a third its former size.

But first a quick note: Because it’s Xinjiang, there’s going to be a little hassle with names, because we’d normally use some form of the Uighur/other local language name (Mongolian seems to be popular in this particular article) in English, and the Chinese names don’t necessarily translate back into a form likely to be seen on an English-language map. I’ll do my best, but there’s no guarantee I’ll get the names right….

新疆艾比湖50年萎缩2/3

Xinjiang’s Aibi Lake shrinks by 2/3 in 50 years

新疆艾比湖

Aibi Lake, Xinjiang

新疆艾比湖50年来剧烈萎缩，面积已不足丰水期的三分之一，出现了大面积的湖底裸露，成为环境“杀手”。

Xinjiang’s Aibi Lake has severely shrunk over 50 years, with the surface area already not reaching one third of that of its most abundant time. A large area of lakebed has been exposed, becoming an environmental “killer”.

艾比湖位于准噶尔盆地的西北缘，有博尔塔拉河、精河、奎屯河、四棵树河和拉巴河汇入。艾比湖水面面积最大时达 1200多平方千米，年入湖水量达12亿立方米，由于上游地区开荒截流，目前入湖河流只有博尔塔拉河和精河两条，其他三条河在未进湖前就断流了，年入湖水 量只有5亿立方米，湖面锐减到400平方米。

Aibi Lake lies on the northwestern edge of the Junggar Basin, and is fed by the Bortala River, Jing River, Kuitun River, Four Trees (Sìkēshù) River and Laba River. At its largest, the surface area of Aibi Lake reached1200 square kilometres, with an annual inflow of 1.2 billion cubic metres. Because in the upper reaches wasteland was reclaimed and the rivers dammed, currently only two rivers, the Bortala and the Jing, flow into the lake, while the other three rivers stop flowing before the enter the lake, the annual inflow is only 500 million cubic metres and the lake surface has shrunk to 400 square metres.

[Uh, surely there’s a typo there? Shouldn’t 400平方米 be 400 平方千米- 400 square kilometres? Otherwise it’s one hell of a lot less than 1/3 of its greatest extent of 1200 square kilometres. Just for reference, 百度百科 has its area as 1070 square kilometres.]

艾比湖萎缩导致的地下水位下降，使这一流域周边地区盐渍化和荒漠化加快，成为继罗布泊干涸之后困扰新疆的第二大生态问题。干涸湖底的盐碱经过反复的冻结融化，变成粉末状，在大风的作用下形成盐尘暴。为缓解这一现状，当地政府曾试图向艾比湖输水，但收效甚微。

The shrinking of Aibi Lake has led to a lowering of the water table, speeding up salinization and desertification in the areas around the basin, becoming the second biggest ecological problem troubling Xinjiang after the drying up of Lop Nur. The drying of the saline lands of the lakebed undergoes a repeated freezing and thawing, becoming powdery, becoming a salt-sand storm in high winds. To alleviate the current situation, the local government has tried to bring water into Aibi Lake, but to little effect.

Not a good situation, obviously, but it seems to be entirely manmade. But would undamming those three rivers do any good?