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April 1, 2010

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Big China dry spreads tendrils as farms suffer

Source: Xinhua | April 1, 2010, Thursday | Print Edition

CHINA'S devastating drought centered in the southwest of the nation is still expanding, with an extraordinary 7.73 million hectares of arable land now adversely affected.

Liu Ning, vice minister of water resources, said yesterday the latest figures were noted on Tuesday and were up from 7.6 million hectares recorded just last Friday.

The drought has had a serious impact on lives and economic development, leaving 24.25 million people and 15.84 million farm animals short of water, he told a press conference in Beijing yesterday.

Liu attributed the drought in the southwest to inadequate storage facilities, inefficient use of water and declining river flows as well as less rain and higher temperatures.

Recent rain, brought by cloud seeding in southwest regions, may have provided some relief for farm production, but drinking water remained a problem, he said.

"We should be fully prepared for a longer and more serious drought," he said.

The rainy season does not usually start in China's southwest until late May.

Liu said northern China was starting to see signs of drought, but conditions were far less serious than those of last year.

China's grain production would not be badly affected by the drought, he said, as the country's major growers were in northern areas.

The central government had issued 6.3 billion yuan (US$922.4 million) to provide support to drought-relief projects, alongside another 800 million yuan for general aid in affected areas, Liu said.

Yu Xinwen, a spokesman for the China Meteorological Administration, told another press conference the government would do more cloud seeding, but would mostly rely on infrastructure building and other engineering endeavors to ease the drought.

Liu also said that reservoirs in southwest China had not intensified the drought by draining natural waterways, and more were needed to ensure grain production and the supply of drinking water.

"Without the reservoirs and other water-conservation projects in southwest China, the drought would have happened earlier and resulted in more losses," Liu said.

Liu's views were echoed by Zhou Xuewen, head of the Ministry of Water Resources' planning department.

Zhou said the drought had revealed the poor state of water infrastructure in southwest China, and an immediate upgrade was needed.


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