China has officially started building a tree belt along the Tarim Desert highway running across Taklimakan Desert in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, known as the "sea of death," in an effort to protect the desert road from being buried by sand.

The afforestation project, launched at the weekend, is expected to be completed in 2005 with an investment of 220 million yuan (US$26.6 million).

During this period, plants suitable for desert life will be planted on 3,128 hectares of land along a 436-kilometer section of the 522-kilometer desert highway, said to be the longest of its kind in the world.

The Tarim highway was built in 1995 to promote exploitation of gas reserves in the Tarim Basin and to boost economic and social progress in the southern part of the northwestern region.

The desert road winds from Lunnan Oilfield, at the northern edge of the Taklimakan Desert, to Minfeng County at the southern edge, dividing into two parts the 340,000-kilometer Taklimakan, the second largest floating desert in the world.

The Tarim highway has been facing sand encroachment since it was built, and China has spared no efforts to find effective ways to protect the highway.

Chinese scientists have used sand-control meshing and built tree belts along the desert highway on a trial basis to protect the road during the past several years. A pilot afforestation project in 2001 resulted in a tree belt along a 30.8-kilometer section of the highway.

The current afforestation project consists of four parts, namely laying irrigation pipes and facilities, building electricity-generating and transforming facilities, planting trees and building other infrastructure projects needed to protect the desert highway.

According to the design, the project is to consume 6 million cubic meters of water annually, with the tree belt using less than 2,000 cubic meters per hectare.

The reserve of under-ground water in the area stands at 1.629 billion cubic meters, and 90 million cubic meters can be drawn annually from various sources, including rainfall, to replenish the reserve.

(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2003)