{"id":116690,"date":"2023-12-14T18:34:22","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T18:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinadialogue.net\/?post_type=photo_story&p=116690"},"modified":"2024-04-12T10:43:30","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T10:43:30","slug":"salt-storms-sting-herders-on-the-mongolian-plateau","status":"publish","type":"photo_story","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/nature\/salt-storms-sting-herders-on-the-mongolian-plateau\/","title":{"rendered":"Salt storms sting herders on the Mongolian Plateau"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In early April, a strong gale built up near Daoleed Sharina\u2019s home. She rushed her sheep into a pen and ran home. By the time she got inside, her eyes were in excruciating pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Livestock are Sharina\u2019s family\u2019s livelihood. They manage over 400 hectares of pasture and are responsible for thousands of sheep and cattle on their ranch in Bayan Gaobi Gacha, a herder\u2019s settlement in East Ujimqin Banner on China\u2019s border with Mongolia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent decades, human activity up here on this section of the Mongolian Plateau, which contains the largest contiguous temperate grasslands in the world, has severely degraded the landscape. Now, due to desertification, residents of East Ujimqin, which is a county in Xilingol League (prefecture), often face strong winds laden with dust and sand during the spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"herders<\/div>
Sharina (right) and her niece, Baorjigen Saihanna, brave a sandstorm to provide water for their sheep on the family ranch in East Ujimqin. Both are wearing masks to protect themselves from the painful, salt-laden winds. (Image: Yuan Ye \/ China Dialogue)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sharina\u2019s sister-in-law, Sim (not her real name), notes that the sandstorms at the ranch are out of the ordinary. Now living in the county town, Sim regularly returns to her old home dozens of kilometres away to help her brother with the ranch. \u201cThe sand at [the ranch] really hurts when it hits you in the face. It\u2019s not as painful over in town,\u201d she tells China Dialogue.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHere in the north, there\u2019s so much salt. When the wind blows, the salt comes straight to our home,\u201d Sim says.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sim is referring to the salt dust carried by salt storms. Different from dust in typical sandstorms, the salt is particulate matter rich in fine sulphates and chlorides, lifted from dried-out parts of former lakes, salt-alkali land and desert. Salt storms are considered a direct threat to human health, and insufficient protection against them can cause respiratory diseases. Sharina\u2019s family, for example, are constantly bothered by rhinitis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The family lives on the lower reaches of the Wulagai River, the largest inland river in Inner Mongolia. A few kilometres north sits the Wulagai Gaobi, a desertified expanse stretching as far as the eye can see. It was one of the largest lakes on the Wulagai, until it completely dried up when the river\u2019s upper stream was dammed decades ago, leading to reduced flow that exacerbates the impacts of drought and excessive herding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"a<\/div>
The Wulagai Gaobi was once a seasonal saltwater lake, but dried up completely when the upper part of the Wulagai River was dammed (Image: Yuan Ye \/ China Dialogue)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Disappearing wetlands<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In May, Sharina\u2019s husband Baorjigen Burentegusi drives to the former lake. The 52 year old passes large, sparse expanses of grass, eventually reaching a dry riverbed. Standing on the pale, hardened ground, he says: \u201cThis all used to be water.\u201d When he was young, the area was a lake surrounded by reeds and lush grassland, he recalls. Now, it is a dried-up lake bed, surrounded by large swathes of salinised terrain covered in needlegrass and other salt-tolerant plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"a<\/div>
Burentegusi stands next to his car on a particularly dry part of the Wulagai Gaobi. The surface here is bare and hard enough to drive on. (Image: Yuan Ye \/ China Dialogue)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"A<\/div>
Other parts of this former lake bed are covered in sparse patches of salt-tolerant plants (Image: Yuan Ye \/ China Dialogue)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The 670 hectares of the Wulagai Gaobi are now a desert. Some parts of the former lake bed have hardened to the point that vehicles can drive on it. You can judge the water content of the soil by the colour of the grass: the driest earth is bare; where there is some moisture, large patches of black grass emerge; in moister areas, a dark-yellow grass can be found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not only the Wulagai Gaobi that has dried up. So have other places on the river\u2019s lower reaches, like the Yihe Nur. In Mongolian, nur<\/em> means \u201cbig pond\u201d, indicating these places were once lakes and wetlands. Within the Wulagai nature reserve, these have now practically disappeared. According to a 2011 study<\/a> by the Wulagai reserve\u2019s grassland management authority, by that year, the Wulagai grasslands had receded, desertified or salinised by a total of 98,800 hectares, accounting for just over 20% of the total grassland area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharply contrasting with the desolation around the Wulagai River\u2019s middle and lower reaches, upstream of the dam, thriving wetlands with diverse vegetation can still be found. Jiuquwan (Nine River Bends) is one such spot that has become a famous tourist attraction. The floodplain there is full of wetland plants such as the common reed, cockspur grass and wormwood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/div>
Jiuquwan is a popular scenic spot upstream of the Wulagai dam, where the river meanders through grassland, forming areas of marsh and oxbow lakes (Image: Yuan Ye \/ China Dialogue)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Controversy over the causes of deterioration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to environmental groups and ecologists, wetland degradation on the lower reaches is a direct result of the Wulagai dam, which has reduced the river\u2019s normal flow. The dam was built in 1980, with a severe flood destroying it in 1998. It was rebuilt and enlarged in 2004, and today the reservoir behind the dam can hold up to 250 million cubic metres of water. After the rebuild, the lower reaches of the river received little water for six successive years, according to a 2010 report<\/a> in state media Oriental Outlook. Officials from East Ujimqin Banner sought help from authorities in Xilingol to coordinate water release, but the efforts were rejected by the reservoir management body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n