East China's Shandong Province is now experiencing its worst
drought in 100 years. Now 800,000 people are facing shortage of
drinking water and more than 7 million
mu (15
mu=1
hectare) of crops have withered away. The whole province has
suffered an economic loss over 10 billion yuan (8.28 yuan=US$1).
"This year's drought is very severe, and now 800,000 people are
facing shortage of drinking water and more than 7 million mu
of crops have withered away. The whole province has suffered an
economic loss over 10 billion yuan, and we will rush to Beijing to
report the condition to the central authority, and ask for help",
said an engineer from the local drought relief office.
The drought, which lasted from summer to autumn, has affected over
80 percent farmland of the whole province, causing temporary
drinking difficulties for 3.66 million people and 1.04 million
heads of livestock and forcing more than 800,000 people to buy
water or carry it from far away. The Jining section of the
Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has closed to navigation nearly 60
days, leaving millions of tons of coal waiting to be shipped out. A
batch of major reservoirs and lakes all dried up and the Binzhou
City is facing a crisis of water shortage.
Besides, the drought also caused a series of problems threatening
the ecological environment of the province, including worsened
pollution, salinization and invasion of seawater.
Now the main rain season has passed and there is little chance for
effective, large-scale raining, a provincial government official
said. All projects across the province only hold 3.6 billion cubic
meters of water, no more than half of that of previous years.
The level of underground water dropped continuously and 210,000
wells didn't yield enough water and, nearly 60,000 motor-pumped
wells were simply empty. Water volume that can be drawn from the
Yellow River was currently reduced to 500 million cubic meters,
against the total provincial holding capacity of 2.7 billion cubic
meters. While 1.9 billion cubic meters are urgently needed for
drought relief along the Yellow River and another 2.7 billion cubic
meters are needed for autumn seeding.
The water level of the Yellow River dropped continuously and
irrigation has been stopped since the water contains too much
sand.
In
past years the water level was two times higher than the current
one, and crops nearby would die down if the drought goes on, said a
farmer in Luokou.
By
September 18 the major five reservoirs on the mainstream of the
Yellow River held only 5.895 billion cubic meters of water
available, the figure may drop to 2 billion by September or October
if no water is diverted from the middle reaches. This water volume
can only last until the end of November provided that lower-reach
cities are supplied and rivers are kept flowing. Taking autumn
planting of Henan and Shandong provinces into consideration, by the
end of next month there will be no water supply from the Xiaolangdi
Reservoir.
(Xinhua News
Agency September 20, 2002)