South China Drought Cuts Crop Yields Nearly In Half, Strands Ships - Shanghai Daily

[hatrack]

DROUGHT continued in central and southern Chinese provinces this week, with dozens of ships stranded in shallow rivers and crop harvests almost halved. Authorities in Jiangxi Province had to demand more water from reservoirs on the upper Ganjiang River, hoping to end a two-month standstill in water traffic.

EDIT

In central China's Hunan Province, low water levels in Dongting Lake, China's second largest freshwater lake, forced fishermen to stop fishing in early October, normally the peak season. Drought along the Xiangjiang River has caused a severe shortage of drinking water for more than 3 million people in the cities of Changsha, Zhuzhou and Xiangtan. As of Monday, a stretch of at least 5 kilometers of dry riverbed on the Xiangjiang River was dotted with stranded vessels. In Changsha, people even planted vegetables in the riverbed.

In southern China's Guangdong Province, rain is down by more than 20 percent from average, threatening to halve crop harvests.

In Quanzhou, a city in Fujian Province on the southeastern coast, drought threatened to damage 16,600 hectares of crops, the local drought relief office said.

EDIT/END

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2009/200910/20091021/article_416973.htm

[4_TN_TITANS]

1. And last month was the wettest Sept on record

here in middle Tennessee.