This year, China issued its first national drought warning as officials battle forest fires and gather expert teams to protect crops in the Yangtze River valley from scorching heat.
The statewide yellow notice, issued late Thursday, follows weeks of scorching weather from Sichuan in the southwest to Shanghai in the Yangtze Delta, which government officials attribute to climate change. Chinese.
Poyang Lake, located in one of the Yangtze River’s main flood basins in central China’s Jiangxi Province, has shrunk to one-fourth of its normal size for this time of year, according to Xinhua.
As many as 66 rivers in 34 counties in southern Chongqing Province had dried up, according to China Central Television.
According to local government data, this year’s rainfall in Chongqing has been cut by 60 percent compared to the seasonal average, and the soil is badly dry in several places.
Temperatures in Beibei District, north of Chongqing, hit 45 degrees Celsius on Thursday, according to the China Meteorological Bureau.
Chongqing was ranked sixth among China’s top ten hottest cities on Friday morning, when temperatures in the Beishan region approached 39 degrees Celsius and in Shanghai hit 37 degrees Celsius.
Chongqing’s infrastructure and emergency services are being strained, with firefighters on high alert as fires rage in the region’s mountains and woodlands.
The Chongqing Agriculture Bureau has organised specialised teams to maintain fragile crops and expand planting areas in order to compensate for losses before the autumn harvest.
Higher temperatures in July alone resulted in direct economic losses of 2.73 billion yuan, or about $400 million dollars, according to figures released late Thursday by China’s Ministry of Emergencies.
China has issued a drought alert and is fighting to save crops.
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