Emerging from the dust, a man on a three wheel pick up returns from Inner Mongolia with cheap coal. A suffocating dust cloud blows in from the north as strong winds whip up the loose sand from the parched Quintu lake valley. Because of the lack of vegetation, nothing prevents the dust from moving. Huge storms can gather in very short periods of time.
Cotton harvesting on the edge of the desert. This area is near Quintu Lake. The lake disappeared decades ago in an area that was an abundance of water and wetlands. Around the city of Wuwei there are now several places built specifically for desertification refugees. During the past ten years, many villages have been abandoned in the northern part of Minqin as the deserts increase.
Emerging from the dust, a man on a three wheel pick up returns from Inner Mongolia with cheap coal. A suffocating dust cloud blows in from the north as strong winds whip up the loose sand from the parched Quintu lake valley. Because of the lack of vegetation, nothing prevents the dust from moving. Huge storms can gather in very short periods of time.
Minqin and the deserts
Minqin county in China’s Gansu province is sandwiched between two expanding deserts, the Tengger and the Badain Juran. Several metres of farmland in the region are lost to desertification every year. Land use changes, soil erosion and climate change are all contributing factors in the desertification of Minqin. Despite government efforts to halt the desert increase, once an area is desertified it is almost impossible to restore it to fertile land. This thin oasis of land hemmed in by the Tengri and Badrain Jaran has become a symbol of China's increasing struggle with water resources. Rose+Sjölander visited north-west China to meet the people battling the encroaching deserts.
