In addition, increasing population, industrialization and urbanization have had a severe impact on the biodiversity of lakes, it said.

Algae pollution, which saps the oxygen out of water and kills fish and aquatic life, was caused by an influx of waste water containing nitrogen, phosphorus and other harmful substances, it said.

In central China's Hubei Province, known as the "paradise of lakes", 217 lakes with an area larger than one square kilometer (0.4 square miles) and 522 smaller lakes have disappeared since the 1950s, Xinhua said.

The total size of natural lakes in Hubei had shrunk to 2,438 square kilometers, 34 percent less than 50 years ago.

More than 70 percent of rivers and lakes are polluted, while underground water supplies in 90 percent of Chinese cities are contaminated, previous reports have said.

Nearly 25 years of unbridled economic growth in China have come with little regard to the environment with the nation's water resources severely depleted and air pollution covering most of the country's urban areas.

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