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Measures to Prevent Desertification Taken in DPRK

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK

    Pyongyang, June 17(KCNA) -- Great efforts have been made to prevent desertification in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The DPRK, in recent years, has frequently suffered from desertification.
    Human and material losses have been brought to the economic sectors by frequent and strong sand storms caused by accelerated desertification resulting from global warming.
    This year such phenomena have appeared more frequently than previous years when the country was harassed by sand dust one or two times a year.
    Such phenomena, however, have been seen eight times until the beginning of May, the first on February 25.
    It is predicted that such phenomena will come more frequently.
    In June the average temperature is 26.3 degrees centigrade, 2.6 higher than the same period of the previous years.
    The government has made great efforts for land and environment conservation to prevent desertification and drought.
    It has annually increased investment in this work and conducted an all-people campaign for protecting environment in the spring and autumn period of the general mobilization for land management.
    Over 81,385,000 saplings were planted in more than ten thousands of hectares and some twenty rivers and streams were improved in South Hamgyong Province in this year's spring general mobilization period for land management.
    Water from the Taedong River is running down to a hundred thousands of arable land in 15 cities, counties and districts in South Pyongan Province and Pyongyang along the natural-flow Kaechon-Lake Thaesong Waterway, which had already been completed.
    The Paekma-Cholsan Waterway project is progressing at the final stage and other irrigation projects have also been accelerated.
    Large-scale land readjustment projects have been carried on in many areas to prevent land from being washed away by floods and persistently protect and effectively use it.
    Various kinds of activities have also been conducted to inform people of grave consequences of land desertification.
    Today, the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, the government has conducted information activities through mass media in accordance with this year's theme "Migration and Poverty".