A mammoth "Green Project" is being launched in Qinghai Province to address the issue of a worsening ecological environment around the Longyangxia Hydropower Station, which is now surrounded by severely eroded and barren lands. "Each year, huge quantities of mud and sand pour into the hydropower's reservoir, which have only a 24.7 billion-square- metre capacity as a result of the damages caused by soil erosion," Li Jian, director of the administrative committee of the reservoir area, said. Meanwhile, only 6.6 per cent of the surrounding 1,000 hectares of land have trees. Soil erosion has mainly been caused by the harsh and drought climate here, undue tree-felling, and the lack of an adequate afforestation programme in the past, Li said.