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“Since the 1950s, constant land subsidence has occurred across nearly 70,000 square kilometers there, with some places sinking 3.18 meters and at an annual rate of more than 100 millimeters
Beijing, Tianjin, Tanggu and Cangzhou are the most affected areas – Cangzhou has sunk about 2.4 meters since the 1970s, said Wu Aimin of the Chinese Academy of Geological Environment Monitoring.
Land subsidence can be caused by a number of factors, including natural factors such as crustal movement, natural soil compaction and human factors, such as oil and gas pumping. But the recognized root cause of land subsidence in the North China Plain is the excessive extraction of underground water.
Since the 1980s, Beijing, Tianjin and Tanggu has extracted more than 600 million cubic meters of water over the accepted level every year, according to the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences
Haihe basin has drained more than 100 billion cubic meters of underground water above the accepted level, nearly 70 percent of the amount of the water in the Poyang Lake, China’s largest freshwater lake. And in 2010, 50 percent of Beijing’s water supply came from underground water.”
Read more: China.org.cn
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