Severe drought has left more than 10 million people across China
without an adequate supply of drinking water, Xinhua News Agency
reported yesterday, quoting sources with the State Flood-Control
and Drought Prevention Headquarters in Beijing.
The drought, which has dried up more than 16 million hectares of
farmland and impeded seasonal agricultural activities, prompted
high-level provincial officials from the eight major grain
production bases - Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, Jilin, Henan, Sichuan,
Shaanxi and Gansu - to gather in Jinan, capital of East China's
Shandong Province, on Monday to discuss ways to deal with the
plight.
At
the meeting, Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu urged local government
officials to take effective measures to deal with water shortages
during the spring- ploughing season.
Hui said crop yields could be negatively affected, considering
anti-drought efforts were likely to be hindered in parts of the
country as a result of persistent drought and falling water levels
in many rivers, which has resulted in lower reservoir reserves.
Hui stressed that anti-drought measures require timely financial,
material and technical support to aid farmers, and water saving and
rationing should be strictly carried out.
In
Shandong Province, one of the most thirsty provinces in China, the
drought has dried up more than 1 million hectares of farmland,
leaving 6.25 million people without adequate supplies of drinking
water, while 50 large enterprises have had to shut down temporarily
due to the water shortage, said Han Yuqun, acting governor of
Shandong.
Located along the upper reaches of the Yellow River, Gansu in
Northwest China also suffered a severe drought this spring, which
has caused the water level along the upper reaches of the Yellow
River to drop to a 50-year low.
The water shortage has further spread to southern China, where the
Yangtze River's water level dropped to the lowest point in 16
years.
To
ease the water shortage, thousands of water-saving wells have been
built in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Water-saving irrigation
facilities have been widely promoted in the areas along the Yellow
River, experts with the Ministry of Water Resources said.
The South-to-North Water Transfer project, which began in December,
aims to divert water from the Yangtze River to China's parched
northern regions, throwing a lifeline to the fast-growing economy
and relieving the acute water shortage in key cities such as
Beijing and Tianjin.
(China Daily March 27, 2003)