Southwest China’s Chongqing and Sichuan regions are battling wildfires today, with high temperatures expected to ease next week, but the country’s important autumn harvest could continue to be under threat.
Officials warned this month that temperatures are rising faster in China than in the rest of the world. The record-breaking heat wave has raised concerns about the country’s ability to adapt to rapid climate change and protect its already scarce water resources.
Satellite images show that Poyang Lake, which normally receives the Yangtze River’s overflow water during the summer, is only a fraction of its usual size for this time of year, reducing the supply of drinking water to nearby communities, the agency said. state broadcaster CCTV.
Water from the Three Gorges and Danjiangu reservoirs has already been released to ease shortages downstream, according to the same source.
Drought poses a “serious threat” to China’s autumn crops, the agriculture ministry said in a note today, adding that local authorities had been instructed to do all they could to increase water supplies and protect the harvest. .
Farmers whose crops have been severely damaged will be asked to replant and cloud-bombing rockets will be deployed where possible, the ministry said.
The state weather service said the wave of high temperatures, which has lasted more than two months, is expected to register a “tipping point”, with a cold front coming from the west and a typhoon approaching the southeastern regions.
Although China remains on “red alert” for a 12th day, the temperature is expected to drop in parts of central China from tomorrow, Wednesday, and in Chongqing and Sichuan regions from August 29, the National Meteorological Center announced in the official his Weibo channel.
Authorities also issued a “red alert” for fire, warning that the situation is “extremely dangerous” in forested areas of central and southern Chongqing and eastern Sichuan, the official China News Agency said.
Chongqing and Sichuan, where rainfall has been 80 percent less than in a normal year, have had to deal with 19 forest fires since Aug. 14, according to financial news service Caixin.
No deaths or injuries have been reported so far, but Chongqing has been forced to relocate 1,500 people who were at risk of fire, the local government said.
Jiangxi, Hunan and Guizhou provinces are also on fire alert, China’s Ministry of Emergency Management warned today.
The ministry said it has dispatched more than 2,800 firefighters to Chongqing and Sichuan to help control the situation.
Severe power outages continue across the region, with Sichuan’s capital Chengdu turning off the lights on its underground trains to save energy.
The high temperatures have resulted in the use of air conditioners reaching about a third of the region’s total energy load, while hydropower production has been halved due to low water levels.
Source: RES-MPE
Source: Capital
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