This has lessened the country's reliance on the National Water Carrier and has allowed it to significantly reduce the amount of water pumped from the Sea of Galilee annually in an effort to restore and improve the lake's ecological environment, especially in face of persistent severe droughts affecting the lake's intake basin in recent years.
42.
An early draft of the plan, which is the blueprint for economic policy through 2005 and will be presented in detail early next year, calls the development of China's west a " Herculean, historic task " that must make " breakthroughs in building the infrastructure and preserving the ecological environment " in the next 5 years to 10 years.
