China has sent task forces to help provide emergency relief in Shandong and Henan provinces in central and eastern China, the epicentre of a severe drought affecting nearly 300 million people in several regions.
In a meeting on Wednesday, the Ministry of Emergency Management stressed that local governments must ensure there is water for crops and residential water is safe, increase monitoring and analysis of the drought, send emergency alerts and disperse water in a timely manner.
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China has launched a level-4 emergency response, the lowest of a four-tier system that legally requires a team of experts to be dispatched within 24 hours and for the situation to be constantly monitored.
In recent weeks, extreme heat has persisted in northern and central China, with rainfall down by 50 per cent in some regions, the ministry said. China’s weather bureau forecasts that the drought will further develop.
More than 290 million people across the country have been affected, Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.
Li Xiucang, a deputy director with the National Climate Centre, said as global warming increased, China’s high-temperature days were happening earlier and more frequently than before.
Weather records show that from 1981 to 1990, high temperatures first appear on June 24 on average, but in 2023 high temperatures arrived on May 28 – some 16 days earlier. Furthermore, the period of high temperatures is getting 4.8 days longer every 10 years, and more regions are affected.
Various ministries and local governments are acting to combat the drought. The water resources ministry said that from Wednesday evening, water dispatches from the Xiaolangdi reservoir on the Yellow River in Henan, would be increased to support Shandong and Henan provinces.
Multiple cities called for residents to save as much water as possible. On Tuesday, a county in Gansu suggested that people should avoid long showers and use water for several purposes, such as recycling bath water to wash clothes or flush toilets.
The Queshan county government in Henan issued a statement on Tuesday, asking the public to use as little water as possible and to recycle water.
To relieve the damage wrought by extreme temperatures and drought on crops, China has called for an increase in artificial rain, changes to irrigation methods and constant monitoring of farmland.
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China turns to artificial rainfall to combat drought amid record heatwave
China turns to artificial rainfall to combat drought amid record heatwave
But artificial rain requires appropriate conditions, the Henan Daily reported. The cloud must be thicker or higher than 2km (1.2 miles) and there must be adequate water vapour. The Henan Meteorological Service was ready to boost rainfall whenever the prerequisites were met, it said.
An expert with the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research told state broadcaster CCTV that irrigation methods should be modified to minimise water loss, such as spraying water on fruit trees and covering vegetables with hay to reduce the ground temperature.
