‘Without ink, Cangshan Mountain paints a picture of timeless grandeur; without strings, Erhai Lake plucks a melody of incredible harmony.” This poem aptly captures the beauty of Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Lake in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province.
Erhai Lake, covering 252 square km, is the mother lake of the Dali people. However, in the 1980s, the lake became so polluted that it emitted a putrid smell. Then, it saw three major blue-green algae outbreaks—in 1996, 2003 and 2013.
In recent years, its water quality has greatly improved thanks to the local government’s green efforts such as shutting down mines around the lake and banning the use of fertilizers that contain nitrogen and phosphorus.
Continuous efforts
However, in spite of the improvement, a lot more needs to be done for the lake’s water quality to reach Grade I, the best in China’s five-tier quality system
