China's Shaanxi gains ground in war on soil erosion

File photo shows the scenery of Nanniwan in Baota District of Yan'an, northwest China's Shaanxi Province. (Xinhua/Tao Ming)

XI'AN, Nov. 26 (Xinhua) -- Northwest China's Shaanxi Province has completed soil conservation work on a 55,000-square-km area of the Loess Plateau that has been plagued by soil erosion, an official with the provincial water resources department said on Thursday.

Shaanxi is one of the provinces with the most severe soil erosion in China, with the problem affecting nearly 100,000 square km of land in the Yellow River basin, according to Wei Xiaokang, deputy director of the department.

The province has taken a series of measures to tackle the problem, including ecological restoration. "Shaanxi has built 34,000 dams, which had blocked 5.8 billion tonnes of sludge by the end of 2019," said Wei.

With the improvement of the local environment, the portion of the province rich in vegetation has advanced 400 km northward.

Shaanxi has built 21 state-level and 51 provincial-level soil-and-water conservation demonstration parks, including 52 parks on the Loess Plateau, according to Wei.