China will invest over 200 million yuan (US$24 million) in the next 10 years in building China's first large-scale oasis for settlers in the southern rim of Alxa, in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Over 20,000 herdsmen needing protection from sand storms in the world's fourth largest desert will move to the settlement oasis.

Yang Gensheng, biologist from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told Xinhua on Monday that building the oasis was like "transplanting a 'biological lung' in Alxa Desert, one of China's four major sources of sand storms."

He said the oasis is expected to reduce by 10 percent dust storm days in the autonomous region's neighboring areas and return part of Alxa desert back to life.

The settlement oasis will cover 70,000 hectares, equating to two thirds of Hong Kong's total space. Irrigation water will come from the upper reaches of the Yellow River, 44 kilometers away from the oasis.

The local government plans to plant 4,700 hectares of wind and sand-proof trees and reclaim 10,000 hectares of farmland in the oasis. It will resettle a total of 25,000 herdsmen from the nearby desiccated pastures.

Half the total number of herdsmen in the Alxa League will to be moved to the oasis.

The Chinese government has already invested more than 100 million yuan (83 million U.S. dollars) in building irrigation networks and power installations for the oasis.

About 5,000 herdsmen have already settled there and are growing some 5,000 hectares of crops, vegetables and lucerne -- a kind of forage grass that is also environmentally friendly.

Xinhua reporters at the oasis on Monday saw full irrigation channels and green lucerne and wheat seedlings, which formed a sharp contrast with the yellow sand beyond the farmland.

Dozens of shops and inns have opened along a one kilometer-long "town center" in the oasis.

The Alxa League covers 270,000 square kilometers of land, including 80,000 square kilometers of desert.

Due to decreasing rainfall and over-browsing by domestic animals, the amount of desiccated land in Alxa increases by 1,000 square kilometers each year. About one quarter of the dust brought by sand storms that sweep China come from the Alxa Desert.

Wu Jingliang, head of the Alxa League, said: "If the situation there deteriorates, herdsmen could not survive in that desert area any longer. "

Chinese biologists believe that without water resources, trees and grass cannot grow on a large scale in deserts. The only option is to settle scattered herdsmen and let arid pastures revive.

The southern rim of the Alxa Desert has thin sand layers and the climate there is suitable for farming. The local government opted to build the settlement oasis to let the overused pastures "have a rest."

Experts here say that without successive droughts and without the impact of people shrubs and grass could regrow on the dessicated pasture after five years.

He Yulong, 45, moved to the oasis with three other family members from another part of the Alxa Desert two years ago. "In the past, when the grass was covered by sand my sheep were too thin and weak to walk around," he said.

He, like all the other people resettled, was provided with a 40-square-meter house, a 60-square-meter sheep pen and 2 hectares of farmland, all without charge.

The herdsman raises 50 sheep in his pen and grew maize and vegetables last year, doubling the per capita income of his family from that of the previous year.

Chen Lijie, top official of Gargol Saihan Town, where the oasis is located, says the settlement oasis is not only an environmental project but also an aid project.

He claimed that, so far, 60 percent of the resettled herdsmen had doubled their annual incomes and over 90 percent of the settlers had visibly improved their living conditions.

He emphasized that the average annual flow capacity of the Yellow River in the past few years stood at 56 billion cubic meters while the 10,000 hectares of irrigable land in the oasis would use less than 80 million cubic meters of river water. "So the water consumption of the oasis will not influence the flow in the lower reaches of the river."

China has one of the world's worst desertification problems and the total area of deserts in China is over 2.6 million square kilometers.

After years of planting trees and grass, 10 percent of at-risk land has been controlled and the Chinese government will invest 300 billion yuan (34 billion U.S. dollars) in ecological protection in the next decade.

The Australian government and the Washington-based Adventist Development and Relief Agency (China) have helped with building the oasis.

Mary Felley, a biologist from Australia, said: "The building of the resettlement oasis could mobilize the enthusiasm of the settlers. It is a successful trial, which offers a new model for China's desert control."

(Xinhua News Agency April 23, 2002)