China: Yangtze River Drought Crisis Forces Government to Release Five Billion Cubic Meters of Water from Three Gorges Reservoir
May 26th, 2011Via: Guardian:
The Yangtze – Asia’s biggest river – is experiencing its worst drought in 50 years, forcing an unprecedented release of water from the Three Gorges reservoir. The drought is damaging crops, threatening wildlife and raising doubts about the viability of China’s massive water diversion ambitions.
Between now and 10 June the dam will release 5bn cubic metres of water – equivalent to the volume of Lake Windermere in Britain every day – as engineers sacrifice hydroelectric generation for irrigation, drinking supplies and ecosystem support.
The drastic measure comes amid warnings of power shortages and highlights the severity of the dry spell in the Yangtze delta, which supports 400 million people and 40% of China’s economic activity.
From January to April, the worst hit province of Hubei has had 40% less rainfall than the average over the same period since 1961. Shanghai, Jiangsu and Hunan are also severely affected.
Jesu.
Kind of bizarre to read of this drought in China when we on the other side of the planet kind of wish our water was coming to us in kinder, gentler ways.
I rea;;y dislike these damn projects. This Yangtze dam project has made me nervous and anxious every time I read something about it. Pretty darn immense.
Many blessings to the peoples in Chine. You above all others, I think, know what it means to be a person living in a “clusterfucknation.”
Back in 2000 I was fortunate enough to go to China on a fabulous 2 week tour (fabulous price too). Part of the tour was boat ride down Yangtze River before 3 gorges damn was completed. We even stopped and toured partly finished damn. This was kind of a last chance sort of deal – I got to see a lot of stuff that no one will ever see again – all under water now.