干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Xinjiang is an agricultural region in and climate zone of western China. 58.9% of the river water and 23.1% of the groundwater are used to irrigation regions for agriculture. The water for natural ecosystems decreases constantly. The water utilized for human being and for nature is conflicting. For irrigation water it is existed that high water consumption with low economic return. The water utilization efficiency is 52.6% and the return for per cubic meter water is only 0.15 US Dollar. There are four serious ecological problems related with the improper water utilization in Xinjiang, i.e., the land desertification, the soil secondary salinization, the lake drying and water quality worsening and the vegetation degeneration. In this paper, five countermeasures for sustainable water utilization are presented.