Lagatar24 Desk
Shanghai, Aug 19: As authorities battle forest fires and mobilise specialised teams to preserve crops from sweltering temperatures throughout the Yangtze river valley, China has issued its first national drought notice of the year.
The nationwide ‘yellow alert,’ which was announced late on Thursday, comes after weeks of excessive heat in areas ranging from Shanghai in the Yangtze delta to Sichuan in the southwest, with government officials regularly attributing the conditions to global climate change. On Beijing’s scale, the alert is two notches below the most severe warning.
State news agency Xinhua said on Thursday that the Poyang Lake, one of the Yangtze’s significant flood basins, had now decreased to a quarter of its normal size for this time of year. According to state broadcaster CCTV, up to 66 rivers in 34 counties in Chongqing’s southwest have dried up.
According to local government data cited by CCTV, rainfall in Chongqing this year is 60% lower than the seasonal average, and the soil in numerous areas is seriously deficient in moisture.
According to China’s weather department, temperatures on Thursday reached 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in the Beibei district, which is located north of the city centre of Chongqing.
On Friday morning, Chongqing had six of the ten hottest spots in the nation, with Bishan district temperatures already surpassing 39 degrees Celsius. It was already 37 degrees in Shanghai.
Infrastructure and emergency services in the Chongqing region are under increasing stress, and firefighters are on high alert as forest and mountain fires spread throughout the area. Additionally, state-run media reported a rise in heat stroke cases.
Additionally, the Fuling district’s gas utility informed customers on Friday that it will stop supplying gas until further notice in order to address “severe safety hazards.”
The Chongqing agricultural bureau has also assembled specialist teams to safeguard crops that are particularly sensitive and to increase planting to make up for losses before the autumn harvest.
To prevent supplies from running out, the water resources ministry has directed agricultural areas affected by the drought to create rotas defining who can access supplies at any given moment.
Chinese emergency ministry statistics released late on Thursday show that the high temperatures in July alone resulted in direct economic losses of 2.73 billion yuan ($400 million), affecting 5.5 million people.
On Friday, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) of China issued a new high-temperature red alert, marking the 30th day in a row that it has done so. Additionally, state analysts said that the current heatwave wouldn’t end until August 26.
In its daily broadcast, the meteorological agency reported that nearly half of the country’s total area, or 4.5 million square kilometres, has now experienced temperatures of 35 degrees Celsius or more over the past month, with more than 200 weather stations reaching record highs.
