Drought threatens power in Yunnan
By Wang Xiang |
March 20, 2010, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
PARTS of southwestern China may have to suspend power supplies after experts warned that the drought gripping the region was worsening and could affect Yunnan Province for up to a year.
Many rivers in the province have already dried up after seven months of minimal rain. The drought would last to May at least and more than 10 million people, a quarter of the province's total population, would be lacking drinking water by then, Zhu Yong of Yunnan's meteorological authority said.
Zhu said the province saw 58.8 percent less rain falling since last September. He said the drought was probably going to continue for a whole year.
Although the third largest province in China in terms of water resources, the most populous regions of Yunnan could only use 5 percent of its total water. The imbalance contributed to the massive drought, Zhu said.
Currently 13.79 million people in Yunnan were affected by the drought which had cost more than 10 billion yuan in agricultural sectors.
In neighboring Guizhou Province, 10.36 million people have been affected by the drought since last July. The province's flood control and drought relief office has raised its emergency alert to level one, the highest class.
More than 76,000 armed police and military officers were sent to dig wells and build irrigation ditches. But no major rain is expected in the province, according to China News Service yesterday.
Some provinces have carried out power limit policies as they relied mainly on hydroelectric power stations and the drought was a bigger problem for them. Enterprises subject to the limit were mostly smelting factories that had high energy consumption.
In Sichuan Province, power supplies are strained as coal storage in some power stations is lower than the seven-day consumption limit. A Sichuan official said it will not start power cuts any time soon as the remaining coal in the whole province could last until the end of April.
But he said situation might get out of control if the drought continued.
Many rivers in the province have already dried up after seven months of minimal rain. The drought would last to May at least and more than 10 million people, a quarter of the province's total population, would be lacking drinking water by then, Zhu Yong of Yunnan's meteorological authority said.
Zhu said the province saw 58.8 percent less rain falling since last September. He said the drought was probably going to continue for a whole year.
Although the third largest province in China in terms of water resources, the most populous regions of Yunnan could only use 5 percent of its total water. The imbalance contributed to the massive drought, Zhu said.
Currently 13.79 million people in Yunnan were affected by the drought which had cost more than 10 billion yuan in agricultural sectors.
In neighboring Guizhou Province, 10.36 million people have been affected by the drought since last July. The province's flood control and drought relief office has raised its emergency alert to level one, the highest class.
More than 76,000 armed police and military officers were sent to dig wells and build irrigation ditches. But no major rain is expected in the province, according to China News Service yesterday.
Some provinces have carried out power limit policies as they relied mainly on hydroelectric power stations and the drought was a bigger problem for them. Enterprises subject to the limit were mostly smelting factories that had high energy consumption.
In Sichuan Province, power supplies are strained as coal storage in some power stations is lower than the seven-day consumption limit. A Sichuan official said it will not start power cuts any time soon as the remaining coal in the whole province could last until the end of April.
But he said situation might get out of control if the drought continued.
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