China Keeps Yellow River Flowing Despite Droughts

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, December 20, 2001

China Keeps Yellow River Flowing Despite Droughts

China has managed for two successive years to keep the lower reaches of Yellow River flowing despite droughts. In addition to implementations of legal, administrative and economical measures, it is important to transfer water from other river basins to the Yellow River to increase its volume.

China has taken measures to prevent Yellow River from drying up

China has managed for two successive years to keep the lower reaches of Yellow River flowing despite droughts.

The Yellow River, the second longest river in China, runs through nine provinces with an annual volume of surface flow of 48 billion cubic meters. In 1997, it dried up in some sections for over 200 days.

Statistics at a middle-reaches hydro-graphic station show the 2001 river volume of surface flow is only 16.4 billion cubic meters, the second lowest on record, due to severe droughts last spring and summer.

Concrete measures

The Director of the Yellow River Water Resources Committee, Li Guoying, said the committee has taken three measures to fight droughts.

They have diverted all three reaches of the river, where they used to divert the upper and lower reaches only.

They now allocate water where it is most needed, such as at crucial times for crop growth.

Li said reservoirs along the Yellow River play important roles in these maneuvers. The Xiaolangdi Reservoir, for instance, has hit a record amount of water this year.

In addition to implementations of legal, administrative and economical measures, it is important to transfer water from other river basins to the Yellow River to increase its volume, he said.

Li also called for an increase in public awareness of the importance of water conservation.

Source of Yellow River Running Dry

Half of the over 4,000 lakes which nurture the source of China's second-longest river -- the Yellow River -- in Qinghai Province are disappearing, bringing a drinking water shortage to local people.

In Madoi, the county closest to the river source in this northwest China province, grassland is shrinking fast, with dried- up river beds emerging everywhere. However, Madoi used to be called a ``county of thousands of lakes."

Partly due to the global warming phenomenon, the river has suffered a shrinking water supply for several consecutive years.

The disappearance of half of the ground rivers and lakes in Madoi has already severely impacted the local grazing and animal husbandry occupations.

The drought this summer dried up over 120 drinking water sources in Madoi. So far, 30 percent of the county's grassland coverage has vanished. Only half of the summer and autumn ranges can be used for herding, which has left some 380,000 head of livestock short of feedstuff.

Through this coming winter, 70 percent of some 10,000 herdsmen in Madoi will have to rent rangelands elsewhere to feed their flocks and herds.

Source of Yellow River Running Dry

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