China’s largest lake at verge of drought
Jiangxi Province in central China has declared water supplies on “red alert” for the first time as a prolonged drought has dried up much of the water in the country’s largest lake.
The provincial government said on Friday that the water level of Poyang Lake, normally an outlet of the Yangtze River, has fallen from 19.43 meters to 7.1 meters over the past three months.
The Jiangxi Water Monitoring Center said “the level is expected to drop further in the coming days due to lack of rain. Rainfall since July is 60% lower than a year ago,” she added.
As many as 267 weather stations across China reported record high temperatures in August, and a long dry spell in the Yangtze River Basin hampered hydropower generation and crop growth ahead of this season’s harvest. Although heavy rains have eased the drought in much of southwest China, central regions continue to suffer, with extremely dry conditions in Jiangxi now lasting more than 70 days.
A total of 10 reservoirs in neighboring Anhui Province have fallen below the “dead pond” level, meaning they cannot drain water downstream, the local government department said about water earlier this week.
China’s largest lake at verge of drought
The state weather forecast said dry conditions still prevailed in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze, China’s longest river, and efforts were needed to sow clouds and divert water from somewhere else.
