Minqin

The Minqin Oasis, located in northwestern China, was once a lush and fertile agricultural region that thrived in the midst of the Badanjilin and Tengeli deserts (Figure 1). Fed by the lower reach of the great Shiyang River (Photos 1 and 2), and sustained by a shallow regional water table, the oasis is the ancestral homeland for thousands of farmers, supporting a variety of crops, from cotton to sunflower (Photos 3 and 4). However, because of increasingly higher water extractions along the Shiyang River, and excessive groundwater pumping within the region (Photo 5), the water table has declined significantly over the last several decades, violating the once dynamic equilibrium between desert and oasis. As a recent June, 2006 New York Times front page article reported: “An ever-rising tide of sand has claimed grasslands, ponds, lakes and forests, swallowed whole villages and forced tens of thousands of people to flee as it surges south and threatens to render this ancient Silk Road greenbelt uninhabitable” (Photos 6, 7, and 8). The severe consequences of this regional desertification extends far beyond the greenbelt, as the Minqin Oasis has become the single largest source of dust storms in Asia, even impacting the City of Beijing, located far away on the eastern coast of China. In addition to drawing great international attention, this environmental disaster has galvanized the government of China, which is committed to halting the desert’s migration and destruction of the oasis through establishment of a national “937 Project.” The Prime Minister Wen Jiabo has traveled to the region to pledge his support, and researchers from around the country are studying different components of the problem in great detail. The ultimate goal is to find an optimal balance between agricultural/ economic viability for the region and environmental protection and sustainability of the oasis. area code: 935