Over two decades, Li Wanhui of the Xinjiang local government, has watched as a downstream stretch of the mighty Tarim River turned from a natural local oasis to a dry riverbed and then, ultimately, transformed into a stunning lake.

This transformation has had a huge impact on local towns, such as nearby Xinir, Li's childhood home. The restoration of the river to its former glory has seen Xinir as one of the many towns to have its own lifeblood restored after years of decline.

This renaissance in the region is the result of an 8-year management project aimed at repairing decades of damage to the Tarim River. The project, which was completed at the end of 2008, involved some 456 separate initiatives, including a 600 km dam and 42 ecological brakes.

The restoration of the river has a particular piquancy for Wanhui, a 35-year-old civil servant from Urumqi, who spent many of his early years along its banks. He said gratefully: "Thanks to the management of the Tarim River, local residents can again enjoy a peaceful life."

The management of the Tarim River, the mother river of Xinjiang, has played an important role in the region's economic and cultural development, according to Tohti Ahmati, secretary general of the Tarim River Management Bureau.

The Tarim River region refers to a group of 144 rivers that run in proximity to the Tarim Basin. Located in Xinjiang in the far west, the 1,321-km Tarim River is China's longest inland waterway, running west to east along the north edge of the Taklimakan Desert.

More than 10 million people, some half of the region's population, live along the river and farm some 1.7 million hectares of land, according to statistics from the Tarim River Management Bureau.

Ahmati said: "Due to the degradation caused by overuse of water for irrigation and random land reclamation, 300 km of the lower reaches of the river began to dry up in 1976."

The result was that, in a number of villages such as Xinir, many people had to move to other locations due to water shortages. In total, more than one third of Xinir's population had left the town by 1992. Among their number was Li's family.

In 2001, the Chinese government earmarked a total of 10.7 billion yuan to launch the Tarim River Management Project. This initiative involved the introduction of advanced irrigation technologies to the farmers living at the upper and middle reaches of Tarim and, subsequently, reduced water consumption on agriculture.

By the end of last year, about 20,000 hectares of sand had been covered with foliage. The number of plant species growing along the riverside has now grown from just 17 in 2001 to 46 today, according to the secretary general.

Through measures, such as the construction of the water-saving irrigation system and the exploration of underground water, more than 2.2 billion cu m of water have been saved to date. The capacity of underground water now being accessed has reached 279 million cu m.

To commemorate the success of the water management process, a film, entitled The Great River, was shot by a local film producer and premiered on May 5 this year, featuring local Uygur and Han people, as well as a number of Russian stars.

(China Daily May 14, 2009)