Work workers are excavating tunnels to maintain water flow to one of the nation’s major rice-growing regions as China’s largest freshwater lake shrinks to only 25% of its normal size due to a severe drought.
Otherwise, irrigation canals to surrounding farmlands had been shut off due to Poyang Lake’s severe fall in the landlocked province of Jiangxi in the southeast of China. Due to the intense heat during the day, the personnel can only operate using excavators to dig trenches after midnight, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
Much of southern China is experiencing devastation due to a strong heat wave. In the southwest, mountain fires fueled by high temperatures have forced 1,500 people to evacuate, and enterprises have been told to limit operations as hydroelectric facilities lower their output due to the drought.
Crops have wilted due to the excessive heat and dryness, and rivers like the massive Yangtze have decreased as a result, impeding cargo transportation.
Poyang Lake, which receives water from China’s major rivers, has a high season average area of 3,500 square kilometres (1,400 square miles), but in the most recent drought, it has shrunk to barely 737 square kilometres (285 square miles).
The lake officially started the dry season this year on August 6, earlier than at any time since records have been kept since 1951, according to the water level. Although it looks the lake may be at or near its lowest level in history, hydrological surveys conducted before that time are incomplete.
The lake serves as a significant resting place for migrating birds on their way south for the winter in addition to providing water for agriculture and other uses.
Though scientists haven’t completed the intricate calculations and computer simulations needed to say with certainty, the heat is probably related to human-caused climate change.
According to Maarten van Aalst, head of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre in the Netherlands, “the heat is unquestionably record-breaking and unquestionably made worse by human-caused climate change.” “Drought usually makes things more complicated.”
Watch video HERE
