URUMQI, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region plans to explore air water resources through artificial efforts to ease the shortage of surface water and improve the local environment.
Meteorologist Zhang Jianxin said that the region has been technically prepared to launch the artificial precipitation project. Currently, two-thirds of Xinjiang's land area and more than 12 million of its population are threatened by desertification which spreads by 350 square kilometers annually. The increasing number of sand storms in Xinjiang in recent years has even brought sand and dust to north China, thousands of kilometers away from the region.
The air in Xinjiang is rich in water vapor, which totals 1.38 trillion cubic meters annually, Zhang said, adding that only 17.6 percent of the total amount transforms into rain and snow on yearly basis.
Zhang said, if one percent more of the vapor is transformed into rain and snow through artificial technologies, an additional 1.4 billion cubic meters of water could be utilized by the region annually. That amount is equal to one-sixth of the region's current runoff volume.
Xinjiang first launched artificial precipitation in the 1960s and has achieved encouraging results, sources said.
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