World Journal: Severe Drought in Sichuan Province

(Clearwisdom.net)

[World Journal, August 11, 2001, Beijing]: Since the beginning of summer, Sichuan province has suffered the most severe drought in 50 years.

According to the People's Daily, 5.56 million people and 5.89 million livestock in Sichuan Province are suffering from water shortages. Agricultural land suffering from drought amounts to 3.22 million hectares, of which half a million is becoming totally unproductive. Faced with the severe drought, the Sichuan provincial government and the Party Committee have called on everyone in the province to go all out to fight the drought. The report said the province has invested 20 million persons and allocated 40 million RMB to control the drought.

40 Burning Days Causes a Severe Drought in Chongqing City

[Central Press, Taipei]: Dubbed a "Furnace," Chongqing City has suffered from more than 40 continuous hot days since the beginning of this summer, resulting in reduction food production and a direct economic loss of 2.1 billion RMB.

According to a Xinhua news report, Chen Guangguo, the vice-mayor of Chongqing City pointed out that since late June, most regions in Chongqing encounter continuous sunny, hot weather. In areas of severe drought, such weather has lasted for more than 50 days. In some places, the temperature is over 40 ?C (104 ?F). This is the first time since 1971 that Chongqing experienced such unremittingly hot weather.

Rainfall in most regions of Chongqing is usually not more than 70cm. This year the rainfall was 60% less than that of the preceding year. Over 40 counties have suffered from a harsh drought. The crop loss was severe. The grain production is expected to drop by 1.91 million tons, directly resulting in an economic loss of 2.1 billion RMB.

Presently, many regions in Chongqing suffer from dry creeks, rivers and reservoirs. The water levels of the Yangtse River and Jialing River are dramatically lower than the previous year. Seven counties including Nanchuan, 105 townships and 896 villages are very short of water. 3.6 million people and close to 3 million large livestock have drinking water shortages. Places like Zhong County and some other townships now rely on transported water to meet the drinking water demand.

Central Press, Taipei: Jiangxi Provincial Drought and Flood Control Center indicated that on August 11^th, Jiujiang City of Jiangxi Province was suffering from a severe drought. Almost 600,000 people are fighting the drought.

According to a Central Press report, the drought in Jiujiang City of northern Jiangxi has caused over 500 rivers to dry up. All water conservation projects have kept water levels to 40-50% of normal. 130 hectares of cropland are affected by the drought. Of those, 25 hectares are now totally unproductive. 200 small reservoirs have dried up. Both livestock and residents are facing serious water shortages.
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2001/8/12/14653.html

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