Term Paper on "Yellow River in China"

Term Paper 6 pages (2077 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Yellow River in China

The Yellow River (also known as "Huang He" in Chinese) is the second largest river in China after the Yangtze River and the fifth largest in the world. The River occupies an extremely important place in the Chinese history as the Yellow River basin is the birth-place of the northern Chinese civilizations, which was the most prosperous region in the early Chinese history. Due to its historical importance, the Yellow River is often called the "Mother of Chinese Rivers." On the other hand, the river has caused frequent devastating floods and changed course many times with equally disastrous results; thus earning a reputation of being "China's sorrow." In this paper, I shall investigate the problems associated with the Yellow River and describe some of the possible solutions.

Problems

Silt Deposition:

Almost all of the problems associated with the Yellow River can be traced to the fact that it is the most sediment-laden river in the world. In fact even its name, "The Yellow River," is owed to its mud laden flow in the lower reaches and the resultant perennial ochre-yellow color. The Yellow River carries an average 37 kg of silt per cu meter in its lower reaches, compared with 0.07 for the Amazon and 0.6 for the Mississippi (Chengrui and Dregne, 12). Most of the silt is added in the river during its middle stretch while passing through the Loess Plateau and the average amount of silt in the river at the point where it is leaving the Loess Plateau is enormous (1.6 billion tons). If the river flow is sufficient it would carry most of the silt into the sea. However, as the river flows slowly in its lower stretch, and with decreasing flows in recent years, most of the silt gets deposited in the riverbed thereby raising its bed far above the normal level and causing the river to overflow its banks resulting in floods.

Floods & Course Changes:

The Yellow River is extremely susceptible to flooding and there have been an estimated 1570 disastrous breaks in the river embankments from 602 BC to 1950 AD (Chengrui and Dregne, 7). Examples of some of the worst Yellow River floods in recent times include the 1887 flood, which killed between 900,000-6,000,000 people and the 1931 Yellow River flood, which is estimated to have killed between 850,000 and 4,000,000 people. ("Yellow River" Wikipedia) at times deliberate breaks were made in the river embankments by Chinese Emperors and Warlords as a defense tactic to stop invading armies from the north. The last such deliberate break in an embankment occurred in 1938 when the Nationalist Chinese Government cut the embankment of the river near Huayuankou in a desperate attempt to halt the advance of the Japanese Army. It failed to stop the Japanese but an estimated 890,000 people died in the ensuing flood and its aftermath. (Ibid)

Records also indicate that, from 602 BC to present, the river's course made at least 5 major changes in direction. Probably, the most damaging course change in the river occurred in 1194 a.D. flood waters rushed onto the Huai River basin south of the Yellow River and took over the Huai River's drainage system over the next 700 years. (Liang, para 2) the Yellow River adopted its present course in 1897 after another major course change occurred in 1855. (Ibid)

In order to prevent the river from overflowing its banks, higher dykes and levees have been built especially since the Communist Revolution in 1949. Although no major flood has occurred in the Yellow River since 1949, the ever-higher dykes present an even greater potential danger. This is because in the river's lower reaches, the river bottom is higher than the surrounding plains by an average of 3 to 6 meters and up to 10-12 meters in places. In the city of Kaifeng in Henan Province, for example, the riverbed is higher than the houses behind the levees. A study quoted by estimates that an extreme flood in vicinity of Sanmenxia Dam, situated in the southeast of the Loess Plateau, would affect 35 million people if it broke the dyke on the north side of the river and 55 million if the break were on the south side of the river. (Liang, para 3)

Decreased Flows:

While flood in the Yellow River has been the major problem during most of the river's history, a severe shortage in river flows has increasingly taken over as a major concern in recent years. In 1972, the Yellow River ran dry for the first time in history; in 1997 its lower reaches lay dry for more than 200 days. (Hoh, 17) Much of the northern part of China, through which the Yellow River flows, receives little rain; an exploding population and increased withdrawal of water, particularly for irrigation requirements, is mostly responsible for the decreased flow in the river. Add to this, the phenomenon of global warming and climate change, and we have a recipe for disaster. The situation is particularly alarming in the densely populated lower reaches of the river, as the inner provinces such as the Ningxia province divert most of the river's water, leaving little for the lower parts such as the Shandong province.

Some of the underlying reasons for the decreased flows in the river include deforestation, especially in the inner provinces; the indiscriminate and uneconomical use of water for agriculture; ancient factories that use far more water than necessary; under-pricing of the commodity (i.e., water) and the almost complete absence of re-cycling of the resource. (Ibid) to make matters worse, all across northern China, the groundwater table is sinking by about 5 feet per year, due to over-pumping. As these alternate sources of water dry up, it puts even more pressure on the Yellow River, threatening to turn a major crop-growing region of the country into an enormous dust bowl.

Environmental Degradation:

The expanding population has put enormous pressure on the Yellow river basin's environment. The most noticeable effect is the depleting forest cover in the Loess Plateau as more and more land is cleared for cropland. This deforestation is, of course, not a new phenomenon and had started at least 3000 years ago. (Chengrui and Dregne, 13) Besides causing silt accumulation in streams, reservoirs, canals and irrigated fields, forest destruction and overgrazing of the grasslands in the north has resulted in a high rate of soil erosion as well as salinity of the cropland and groundwater.

Chemical and Biological Pollution

Chemical and biological pollution of the surface and groundwater in the Yellow River Basin and the North China Plain is another serious concern. Discharge of industrial effluent and untreated sewage from cities and villages is common everywhere in China but is particularly damaging for the Yellow River. Surface water contamination is becoming increasingly important as water supplies decline and less dilution occurs. According to Dr. Zhongping Zhu, Principal Researcher with IWMI: "Water pollution in the Yellow River is exceptionally high...in 2000 less than 40% of the water was deemed drinkable after treatment, with 24% being classed as unfit for human consumption." (Quoted in "New Research Could Provide...") the industrial pollution pouring into the Yellow river has had a devastating effect on its fish population. In one instance, from June 29 through July 1, 2003, about 1 million cubic meters of wastewater was poured into the Yellow River by 2 paper mills; about 40,000 to 45,000 kilograms of fish in the Baotou section of the Yellow River died, which constituted about 30% of the total fish population in the river section and almost 100% of the shrimp population. (Haihua, para 1)

Solutions

Solution of the problems facing the Yellow River is by no means easy. It flows in an area that gets little rainfall and is thickly populated. Global warming and climate change that bring extended periods of drought and heavy rainfalls further exacerbate the problem. Solutions, however, are possible and some have already been tried with mixed success.

An ambitious scheme called the "South-to-North Water Transfer Project" for tackling the water-shortages in the Yellow River, said to have been conceived first by Mao, envisages a massive diversion of water from Yangtze River in the water abundant south to the water deficient north. It is the largest water-diversion scheme in China and likely to cost more than $60 billion. ("Thirsty China to Divert...") Work on the project has already started but it will take several years for the project to be completed.

Controlling the silt flow into the Yellow River would perhaps be the most permanent solution to the problem. Possible ways to control silt are: through reforestation in the areas that feed into the river; making terraces on the slopes; by building a number of check dams on the tributaries and gullies that feed into the Yellow River and carry the bulk of the sediments; and by flushing out the sediment into the sea. Efforts have already been made to control the sedimentation through all of these… READ MORE

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