Urgent action needed over freshwater lake contamination

Urgent action by international communities is needed to halt the contamination of freshwater lakes, Marion Hammerl, President of Global Nature Fund said Sunday.

Hammerl made the remarks on the opening day of a seminar on lake conservancy and regional development in the city of Gongqingcheng in east China's Jiangxi Province, where the country's biggest freshwater lake, Poyang Lake, is located.

"It's urgent time for international communities to take actions to prevent freshwater lakes from being contaminated as the water resources has been greatly threatened by human activities and climate change," said Hammerl.

She went on to say "even if lakes and wetlands are different from each other, the major threats are the same all over the world: decline of water quality caused by contamination, over extraction of water for irrigation, and destruction of shallow areas."

Hammerl, who is also president of the World Living Lake Network, added that the list of dead lakes has been getting longer in recent years. The network was created in 1998 and is non-government organization dedicated to lake conservancy and ecological system protection worldwide.

The four-day event attracts more than 200 water conservation and environmental protection specialists from 19 countries. They share their experiences concerning the exploration and use of lake resources, discuss common problems and propose solutions.

To help combat contamination, representatives of nine famous lakes including Baikal in Russia, Balaton in Hungary and Biwa-ko in Japan established sister lake relationships with Poyang Lake in a bid to promote ecology protection and sustainable development at Saturday's preparatory meeting.

Poyang Lake provides a habitat for migratory birds and endangered fish, such as the finless porpoise, which is a native of the lake. It joined the World Living Lake Network in 2003.