ZHENGZHOU — The emergency ecological water replenishment of the Yellow River Delta in the period from 2019 to 2020 has been launched, the Yellow River Conservancy Commission of the Ministry of Water Resources said on Jan 20.

The water replenishment lasts from December 2019 to June 2020, with a total of 448 million cubic meters of water supplied to improve environment in the delta.

Covering 5,400 square km, the Yellow River delta has the largest, most complete and youngest wetland ecosystem in the world's warm temperate zone. Strengthening the protection and restoration of wetland ecology in the delta is of great significance to maintaining ecosystem security and biodiversity.

Since 2008, the conservancy commission has started to implement ecological regulations in the lower reaches of the Yellow River and has carried out ecological water replenishment to wetlands in the Yellow River Delta Nature Reserve.

The environment of the Yellow River estuary has been improved, groundwater levels have risen, the scale of freshwater wetlands has gradually recovered and the biodiversity has continuously increased.