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Fighting drought in the land of fish and rice
Source: Xinhua |
November 3, 2009, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA'S Hunan and Jiangxi provinces, known for their rivers and lakes, are often portrayed as lands abundant with rice and fish.
However, even they have not been spared by a drought that has plagued a wide swathe of south and east China since August, usually part of the rainy season.
The drought has damaged crops and left 2 million people suffering water shortages and thousands of boats grounded in shallow rivers or cracked riverbeds.
Hunan received 60 percent less rain than normal in August and September. Jiangxi received 60 percent less in September and 90 percent in October, compared with normal.
The drought was worsened by unusually high temperatures. The average temperature in Jiangxi was 2.5 degrees Celsius higher than average, and the highest since 1963.
The Xiangjiang and Ganjiang rivers, two major tributaries of the Yangtze River running through the provinces, are reporting record low water levels.
The water flow in the Xiangjiang River is down to about 500 cubic meters per second, compared to 1,200 cubic meters per second, which is the average for the time of year.
Water levels in Poyang Lake in Jiangxi and Dongting Lake in Hunan, the country's two largest fresh-water lakes, are also at record lows.
As a result, millions of residents living along the main tributaries of Yangtze, the country's largest river, and around the lakes, are suffering from water shortages.
Huangjia village, in Jiangxi's Fengxin County, is among the hardest hit. Villagers have no other water sources and water is being rationed by the local government.
"I haven't washed my clothes for half a month," said Shuai Yimei, an elderly woman. "Because there's been no rain for such a long time, the wells in our village have all dried up," she said. "We don't have water for drinking, let alone washing clothes."
The Fengxin County government started delivering water to more than 18,000 residents in 70 villages on September 8.
"Some villagers wash their faces with the same water twice - in the morning and evening. They keep the water for washing their feet and feeding pigs," said Zhai Shisi, a deputy county governor.
The bad news keeps coming. Jiangxi could see the drought worsen as higher than average temperatures and less than average rainfall are forecast for the next three weeks, say meteorologists.
The situation in urban areas is no better. Most water plants in Changsha, Zhuzhou and Xiangtan, Hunan's three booming cities, have difficulty pumping water to residents as the water intake points are above 25-meter water levels.
The plants had water pipelines extended to the middle of the Xiangjiang River in a bid to guarantee drinking water supplies to 3 million residents in the three cities.
The move, however, has fueled concerns over the safety of tap water. Liu Lan, a resident in Liuyanghe compound in Changsha, said her family drank barreled water because of worries over the tap water quality.
Liu is not alone. Supermarkets have reported panic-buying of bottled water.
Water safety
To ease the mounting concerns, local governments have moved to guarantee water safety.
Authorities in Changsha, Hunan's capital, have banned reef explosions and sand excavations and ordered some industrial companies along the river to suspend production.
The local environmental protection agencies also have launched around-the-clock monitoring of the river water, tap water and bottled water.
Meteorologists and the public blamed dams on the Yangtze and its tributaries and the decline in rainfall for the water crisis.
From late summer to autumn, most southern provinces only received half their average rainfall.
The Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydropower project, started raising water levels upstream to the maximum 175 meters in the dry season.
Postings on the Internet were critical of the moves to store water on the Yangtze's upper reaches, while drought worsened in the lower reaches.
The suspicions and criticism continued even after the China Three Gorges Corp defended the plan to raise the water level in the huge reservoir.
Yuan Jie, chief of the company's control center, said it had increased water flow downstream to more than 9,000 cubic meters per second, about 38 percent more than originally planned, to ease the severe drought.
It said the water storage would help prepare for possible worsening drought in the coming months, particularly during the driest period in January and February.
Despite the debate over dam building, authorities in Hunan started this month building a dam in the Xiangjiang River to prepare for future drought in its industrial heart.
"We pin our hopes on the dam for easing future water crises," said an official with Hunan provincial water resources bureau.
The dam, with an investment of 6 billion yuan (US$878.5 million), is expected to be finished in 2014.
"We shouldn't blindly develop hydro projects. Nature can retaliate," said an Internet posting from a person in Ningbo City, in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
However, even they have not been spared by a drought that has plagued a wide swathe of south and east China since August, usually part of the rainy season.
The drought has damaged crops and left 2 million people suffering water shortages and thousands of boats grounded in shallow rivers or cracked riverbeds.
Hunan received 60 percent less rain than normal in August and September. Jiangxi received 60 percent less in September and 90 percent in October, compared with normal.
The drought was worsened by unusually high temperatures. The average temperature in Jiangxi was 2.5 degrees Celsius higher than average, and the highest since 1963.
The Xiangjiang and Ganjiang rivers, two major tributaries of the Yangtze River running through the provinces, are reporting record low water levels.
The water flow in the Xiangjiang River is down to about 500 cubic meters per second, compared to 1,200 cubic meters per second, which is the average for the time of year.
Water levels in Poyang Lake in Jiangxi and Dongting Lake in Hunan, the country's two largest fresh-water lakes, are also at record lows.
As a result, millions of residents living along the main tributaries of Yangtze, the country's largest river, and around the lakes, are suffering from water shortages.
Huangjia village, in Jiangxi's Fengxin County, is among the hardest hit. Villagers have no other water sources and water is being rationed by the local government.
"I haven't washed my clothes for half a month," said Shuai Yimei, an elderly woman. "Because there's been no rain for such a long time, the wells in our village have all dried up," she said. "We don't have water for drinking, let alone washing clothes."
The Fengxin County government started delivering water to more than 18,000 residents in 70 villages on September 8.
"Some villagers wash their faces with the same water twice - in the morning and evening. They keep the water for washing their feet and feeding pigs," said Zhai Shisi, a deputy county governor.
The bad news keeps coming. Jiangxi could see the drought worsen as higher than average temperatures and less than average rainfall are forecast for the next three weeks, say meteorologists.
The situation in urban areas is no better. Most water plants in Changsha, Zhuzhou and Xiangtan, Hunan's three booming cities, have difficulty pumping water to residents as the water intake points are above 25-meter water levels.
The plants had water pipelines extended to the middle of the Xiangjiang River in a bid to guarantee drinking water supplies to 3 million residents in the three cities.
The move, however, has fueled concerns over the safety of tap water. Liu Lan, a resident in Liuyanghe compound in Changsha, said her family drank barreled water because of worries over the tap water quality.
Liu is not alone. Supermarkets have reported panic-buying of bottled water.
Water safety
To ease the mounting concerns, local governments have moved to guarantee water safety.
Authorities in Changsha, Hunan's capital, have banned reef explosions and sand excavations and ordered some industrial companies along the river to suspend production.
The local environmental protection agencies also have launched around-the-clock monitoring of the river water, tap water and bottled water.
Meteorologists and the public blamed dams on the Yangtze and its tributaries and the decline in rainfall for the water crisis.
From late summer to autumn, most southern provinces only received half their average rainfall.
The Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydropower project, started raising water levels upstream to the maximum 175 meters in the dry season.
Postings on the Internet were critical of the moves to store water on the Yangtze's upper reaches, while drought worsened in the lower reaches.
The suspicions and criticism continued even after the China Three Gorges Corp defended the plan to raise the water level in the huge reservoir.
Yuan Jie, chief of the company's control center, said it had increased water flow downstream to more than 9,000 cubic meters per second, about 38 percent more than originally planned, to ease the severe drought.
It said the water storage would help prepare for possible worsening drought in the coming months, particularly during the driest period in January and February.
Despite the debate over dam building, authorities in Hunan started this month building a dam in the Xiangjiang River to prepare for future drought in its industrial heart.
"We pin our hopes on the dam for easing future water crises," said an official with Hunan provincial water resources bureau.
The dam, with an investment of 6 billion yuan (US$878.5 million), is expected to be finished in 2014.
"We shouldn't blindly develop hydro projects. Nature can retaliate," said an Internet posting from a person in Ningbo City, in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
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