Environmental Protection and Water Pollution Control Plan
Main Environmental Stresses of
the Nine Plateau Lakes
4. Irrational Economic Development Weakened
Lakes' Economic and Ecological Functions
The serious soil erosion, land reclamation for farming have led to the
siltation of the lake beds, reduction of lake volumes and shrinkage of
the lake area and accelerated lakes process towards marsh lands :
Dianchi Lake: used to be 1000 m² big and 50 m deep (3 million yr ago),
now 300 m² and 4.4 m deep, with reduced storage volume of 210 million
m³ and sedimentation of over 50 million m³.
Erhai Lake: lowered water level (maximum difference was 2.44 meters)
due to operation of 4 cascade hydro-power stations
Yilong Lake: reduced water surface area from 36 km² (in 1950s) to 30
km², keep lowering of water levelView entire presentation