The headwaters of the Yangtze have been drying up in recent years, with declining water quality and increasing soil erosion. Adventurers and survey teams that have negotiated the river agree that desiccation and desertification have worsened-over the last decade, there has been a 20 % increase in the Yangtze region's desert areas. Grasslands have become sandy plains and dunes have swallowed the once-verdant lands of the headwaters.
尤其近年來長江源頭逐漸枯乾，水土破壞，早有「第二條黃河」之稱，漂流於長江的多位探險家與調查隊不約而同指出，長江沿岸乾化、沙化、荒漠化日益嚴重，十年來，江源地區的荒漠面積增加五分之一，草場成為沙場，滿目蔥蘢的水源之鄉，一個個慘遭沙丘吞沒。