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Since 1997, China has stepped up efforts to curb land erosion along its second largest waterway, the Yellow River, according to the Yellow River Water Conservancy Committee under the Ministry of Water Resources. The current sand content in the river water had dropped by 300 million tons a year, compared with the previous annual average of 1.6 billion tons, said the committee, which is based in Zhengzhou,capital of central China's Henan Province. Erosion-affected land in the Yellow River area stood at 430,000 square km in 1997, but 190,500 square km has been brought under control over the past five years. Land protection projects have been launched in over 200 counties on the Loess Plateau, the main source of sand in the river. These projects are using new and high-tech methods, including returning farmland to forest and grassland to fight rampant soil erosion. In the next decade, efforts will be made to minimize the impact of human activities that may cause land erosion, according to Zhou Yuelu, an official in charge of water conservancy on the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River.