China’s Jiangxi province has declared a water supply “red alert” for the first time after a prolonged drought dried up the country’s biggest lake _ Poyang Lake.
The Jiangxi government said that water levels in Poyang Lake, usually a flood outlet for the Yangtze River, fell from 19.43 metres to 7.1 metres in the last three months.
The level of water is expected to fall further in coming days due the lack of rain.
Precipitation since July is 60 percent less than it was a year ago, it added.
For the first time, 267 weather stations in China have reported record temperatures in August along with a long dry spell across the Yangtze river basin.
Although downpour relieved the drought in southwest China, central regions continue to suffer, with extremely dry weather stretching over 70 days in Jiangxi.
In this situation, the Chinese authorities have issued alert about shortage of water and increase in temperature due to climatic change.
I am an experienced writer, analyst, and author. My exposure in English journalism spans more than 28 years. In the past, I have been working with daily The Muslim (Lahore Bureau), daily Business Recorder (Lahore/Islamabad Bureaus), Daily Times, Islamabad, daily The Nation (Lahore and Karachi). With daily The Nation, I have served as Resident Editor, Karachi. Since 2009, I have been working as a Freelance Writer/Editor for American organizations.