Published by: World Tibet Network News, Sunday, Jun 2, 1996

LHASA (May 29) XINHUA - Geological environment of the Tibet Plateau, reputed as the last "pure soil" on the Earth, is well protected, while potential geological disasters are effectively monitored and prevented, according to the relevant department of the autonomous region.

With a complicated geological structure, the Tibetan Plateau is located on one of China's four major earthquake belts, with high occurrence of landslides, mud-rock flows, avalanches and floods.

A source with the environmental department of the autonomous region said that due to fast population growth and economic development in the region, the geological environment in Tibet is bearing much more pressure.

The situation could be worsened by overexploitation of underground water and heat, as well as the growth of the mining industry, which would lead to soil erosion, land desertification, and avalanches and landslides, he noted.

In the past five years, he said, local geologists have studied a vast area of some 63,000 sq km, in which 254 potential dangers were detected, as well as the geological situation along 354 km of roads frequently hit by disasters.

"As a result of the study, two of the three county towns under the direct threat of geological disasters have been moved to other places, while the other one is choosing a new site," he said.

In 1990, the Geological Department of Tibet set up a special center in this capital of the autonomous region, for the survey of underground water resources and the supervision of the exploration work, he added.

"It now has 67 monitoring facilities in Lhasa alone, nine of which are included in the national network, while 15,255 items of data for underground water quality were acquired through some 9,000 tests and analyses over the past five years," he explained.

Strict rules have also been worked out by local environmental departments, he said, to prevent the mining industry from seeking development at the expense of the environment.

"The large-scale inspection on the implementation of environmental protection laws during 1993 and 1995 successfully brought rampant exploration of mineral resources to a halt," he said.