Aydingkol Lake in Turpan Filling up with Water Again

Having dried up for nearly 10 years, Aydingkol Lake, the lowest place of China, is filling up with water again thanks to the water-saving efforts by the local people.

Last winter, people who made casual visit to the Aydingkol Lake surprisingly found the lake full of water, covering a surface of at least 40 square km.

This March, the Water Conservancy Bureau of the Turpan City confirmed that the lake has so far a water-surface, measuring three-km from south to north and more than 10-km from east to west, which is some 147 meters below sea level.

The Aydingkol Lake, 154 meters below sea level in the Turpan Basin, is the lowest place in China. Because of its heavy evaporation that makes it impossible to keep balance between evaporation and water supplement, it was predicted that the lake would disappear sooner or later.

It is very dry and hot in Turpan, and so it is nicknamed as the "Fiery State". Owing to large-scale reclamation of lands by the people for tapping possible water resources, at the beginning of 1990s the last drop of water finally disappeared under the scorching sun. The prediction came to true.

"Water-saving Agriculture" got popularized among the local people who suffered a lot from the drought. They sought for water saving technology from all over the world. In 1997, they first imported dripping and saturating technology from Israel. This year, the water-saving technology from the U.S. and Australia will also be put into effect.

Now, there is enough water and to spare in Turpan. Apart from irrigation and evaporation, 85 per cent of the river water in summer days gets into the ground, adding about 0.1 billion cubic meters of water for groundwater supply. According to the person in charge, thanks to the frequent mountain torrents in recent years, the groundwater level was on the rise and finally emerged out of the ground and filled the dried lake again. This year, Turpan has a plan to irrigate 10,000 mu (1 hectare = 15 mu) fields by adopting the advanced technology imported from Israel. By then, the water used to irrigate one-mu of land will decrease from 1,000 cubic meters of water to 400. Experts say, even if the local people continue to reclaim more new land, the Aydingkol Lake will have adequate water to supply.

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