https://spc.jst.go.jp/news/230305/topic_3_05.html

Qinghai Province is the source of the Yellow River, the Yangtze River, and the Lancang River (the upper reaches of the Mekong River), and is called “China’s Water Tower” and “the source of rivers. According to Li Qijiang, director of the Qinghai Hydrological and Water Resources Measurement and Reporting Center, the total volume of water resources in Qinghai Province is 62.93 billion cubic meters on average over multiple years, and the amount of water flowing out of Qinghai has shown an increasing trend on a multi-year average. 1956-2000, the amount of water flowing out of Qinghai averaged 59.6 billion cubic meters on a multi-year average; 2001-21, the amount averaged 66.016 billion cubic meters. In contrast, the multi-year average for 2005-21 was 68,608 million cubic meters.

This reflects the increasing capacity of the watershed to store and regulate water quantity, which tells us that the ecological environment of the watershed is improving and that the water recharge capacity of “China’s water towers” is increasing. It also demonstrates the achievements of a series of ecological protection and construction projects that China has implemented in the headwaters of the river in recent years.