Drought in some areas and flooding further south as extreme weather hits China

Henan is a major wheat-producing area and, according to state broadcaster CCTV last week, drought has prevented the planting of at least 1.3 million hectares (3.2 million acres) of farmland in Henan, accounting for 3.5 percent of the area’s summer plantings. area.

The municipal agricultural bureau in the provincial capital Zhengzhou activated a level four agricultural drought emergency response last Thursday, the lowest in a four-level system, and then raised it to level three the next day.

“The timing is critical as the drought coincides with the planting season, a period when crops are highly dependent on water. Inadequate soil moisture can inhibit seed germination, while late planting can shorten the growing season and reduce crop yields,” a local farmer told South Reviews magazine.

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Extreme drought affects nearly 300 million in China, threatens crops

Extreme drought affects nearly 300 million in China, threatens crops

Farmers are desperately searching for water to irrigate their fields under the scorching sun, with people queuing to use the limited wells.

“In my village there are about 40 wells, which serve 2900 hectares of agricultural land. Each well can only accommodate one or two families at a time, and it takes about 15 hours to irrigate two hectares of farmland,” Liu He, a sociologist conducting fieldwork in a local village, told the magazine.

“In addition, the irrigation process requires frequent relocation of water pipes every three to four hours, forcing farmers to constantly monitor their fields. A local family, with only two elderly individuals in their seventies, had to live in the field for three consecutive days and nights to manage the irrigation.”

This year’s drought is particularly severe, perhaps the strongest in the last decade. A farmer from Shangqiu City complained on Weibo.

At least 14 cities in Henan have activated emergency drought responses so far, opening irrigation gates to protect crops, while the city of Zhumadian has asked residents to conserve water and curb use.

But further south, heavy rains have caused a series of floods in several provinces.

The Ministry of Water Resources launched an emergency level four flood protection response in Guangxi, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces on Friday, while authorities in Fujian raised their response to level three. On Saturday Guangdong also issued a level four response.

Guangxi region’s Xi River, a major tributary of the Pearl River, reported its first major flood of the year on Saturday, prompting authorities to prepare upstream reservoirs to catch the flood and empty downstream reservoirs in advance. .

The local hydrological department warned that in the next two days, water levels in the lower and middle sections of the river could rise by two to five meters (6.5-16.4 feet).

Further east, passenger trains were suspended on four railway lines in Jiangxi and Fujian on Saturday, with services not scheduled to resume until Wednesday.

“These prolonged and intense rainfalls are the result of a collision between cold and warm air currents. It poses a high risk of causing flooding in small and medium-sized rivers, urban and rural flooding, landslides and other secondary disasters,” Huang Zhigang, of the Fujian meteorological bureau, told the state-run Xinhua news agency.