[Epoch Times, September 21, 2022]The drought in the mainland continued, and 97 counties and cities in Hunan Province reached extreme drought. Some people photographed that the Xiangjiang River bed was exposed, and a large number of fish were dried into dried fish. At present, the cumulative length of dry rivers in Hunan Province is about 900 kilometers. Some people in 72 counties and urban areas of 14 cities and prefectures in Hunan have difficulty drinking water.
A special report released by the Hunan Provincial Department of Water Resources on September 20 shows that at present, all 122 counties and cities in Hunan have reached moderate or higher meteorological drought, 116 counties and cities have reached severe drought, and 97 counties and cities have reached extreme drought. Moderate, severe and extremely severe hydrological drought accounted for 98%, 84% and 43% of the province’s area, respectively. Netizens photographed the current situation of the Xiangjiang River and saw that the riverbed was bare, and a large number of fish were dried into dried fish.
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The water level of Dongting Lake, located in the northern part of Hunan Province, dropped under the high temperature, the lakebed was exposed in large areas, and the lake bottom appeared to be cracked. The water level of some reservoirs has dropped and they have bottomed out.
Affected by the continuous drought, the water levels of major rivers and lakes in Hunan Province will be low and dry in the next week, and the number of small and medium-sized rivers may increase. Affected by the reduction of inflow from the main stream of the Yangtze River, the water level at Chenglingji Station of Dongting Lake may drop to about 19.9 meters, reaching a yellow warning for dry water.
The Central Meteorological Observatory continued to issue a yellow warning for meteorological drought at 18:00 on September 20.
China News Network reported on September 21 that since July, the water level of Dongting Lake has continued to decline, and the water level has continued to decrease. As of 8:00 on the 19th, the water level at Chenglingji Station of Dongting Lake was 20.18 meters, which was 7.32 meters lower than the same period of last year. At present, there are 48 and 30 rivers with a drainage area of more than 50 square kilometers and over 100 square kilometers in Hunan Province, respectively, with a cumulative length of about 900 kilometers.
At present, some people in 72 counties and urban areas of 14 cities and prefectures in Hunan have difficulty drinking water. Since August, a total of 3,861 wells have been drilled for drought relief in Hunan, with a cumulative water supply of 46 million cubic meters.
At present, the total water storage capacity of various reservoirs in Hunan is 27.548 billion cubic meters, which is 22.4% lower than the average value of the same period of last year, and the available water volume is 15.691 billion cubic meters.
In addition to Hunan, Jiangxi Province also continued to suffer from severe or above meteorological drought. 95.7% of the counties and urban areas reached extremely severe meteorological drought. The precipitation in Changsha and Nanchang last month was only 6.3 mm and 0.1 mm respectively. Since this month, the precipitation has not been recorded. The precipitation in one month was more than 80% lower than that in the same period of the previous year.
Anhui is also experiencing severe drought, with 3 large reservoirs and 7 medium-sized reservoirs below the dead water level.
As of the 20th, the Central Meteorological Observatory has issued a meteorological drought warning for 34 consecutive days.
The latest monitoring shows that there are extreme droughts in southwestern Zhejiang, western Fujian, most of Jiangxi, most of Hunan, southeastern Chongqing, and northeastern Guizhou. The National Climate Center predicts that the precipitation in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in autumn will decrease significantly compared with the same period of the previous year, and it is necessary to pay close attention to the possible continuous drought in summer and autumn.
Responsible editor: Fang Ming#