China’s Yangtze river has dried up in parts, forcing the regions that are dependent on the longest river to deploy pumps and cloud-seeding rockets.
Yangtze’s water levels have been depleted due to a drought, which is also posing risks to the crops. Reports have mentioned that the heatwave is set to last another two weeks.
As the parts of the nation continue to struggle, the Ministry of Water Resources said in a notice on Wednesday (August 17) that drought throughout the Yangtze river basin was “adversely affecting drinking water security of rural people and livestock, and the growth of crops.”
The Yangtze River Water Resources Commission said that rainfall in the Yangtze river drainage area fell about 30% in July and is 60% lower than normal in August.
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Drought hits hydropower
Drought is also causing factories to shut down. As per media reports, factories in China’s southwest were closed. Also, one city imposed rolling blackouts.
News agencies have mentioned that the companies in Sichuan province including makers of solar panels, cement and urea were closed (or reduced production. This happened after they were ordered to ration power for up to five days.
More than five million people in southwest China were facing rolling power cuts as temperatures across Sichuan have surpassed 40 degrees Celsius in recent days. The hot weather led to a rise in the demand for air conditioning.
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A Shanghai-based online media outlet, The Paper, reported that a local power company said Dazhou would receive only intermittent supply on Wednesday. It is a city of 5.4 million people in the northeast of the province.
Dazhou Electric Power Group apparently said that the residents would be hit with outages lasting up to three hours and the cuts could be extended if needed.
“The load on the lines is too heavy” and would affect urban areas as well as townships and villages around Dazhou, The Paper said.
Extreme heat in China
The China Meteorological Administration said the country was going through its longest period of sustained high temperatures since records began in 1961.
There were 64 days straight of heat warnings in various regions starting in June. More than a third of weather stations in China recorded extreme heat this summer, with 262 of them reaching or surpassing previous records, the administration said.
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