Water Ration Forced by DroughtOver 100 cities in northern China are restricting water supply due to a severe drought.The drought, which began this spring, has endangered urban water supply in northern China. The low water levels in most northern reservoirs did not improve despite some heavy rains earlier this month, according to the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters. Tianjin and cities in Shanxi, Shandong, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang and Shaanxi provinces have been forced to ration water due to the drought. Over half of the major rivers in Shanxi Province have dried up. So have 27 large and medium-sized reservoirs and 560 smaller reservoirs within the province. Water supply in Yantai of East China's Shandong Province will only last two more months, said headquarter sources. The northeastern part of China has experienced mostly clear and hot weather since June and cities including Harbin, Changchun and Shenyang have encountered serious water shortages. A total of 400,000 people in over 40 communities do not have an adequate water supply in Harbin, the capital city of Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Government officials said they are busy working out a long-term plan to guarantee enough water for daily use in cities plagued by water shortage. The number of cities which consistently suffer from a serious lack of water has increased since the 1990s and the situation is getting worse, said officials at the Ministry of Water Resources. Some 400 of the 670 cities in China are plagued by water shortages to varying degrees and 108 cities are suffering from serious water shortages, ministry figures indicate. Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai are all strained by water shortages. Water supply stands at less than 300 cubic metres per capita in Beijing, less than 200 cubic metres per capita in Shanghai and only 153 cubic metres per capita in Tianjin. Official figures also reveal that cities across the country suffer a water shortage of 6 billion cubic metres even in normal years. Lu Juntian, an expert with the State Meteorological Centre, predicted that the abnormal climate may continue in the coming years as a result of the alternating effect of El Nino and La Nina. In the summer of 1997, North China suffered from scarce rainfall and northern, northeastern and northwestern provinces were plagued by high temperatures. In 1998, devastating floods occurred in the Yangtze, Nenjiang and Songhua rivers. Last year, serious droughts hit North China, and summer storms brought floods to the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. The El Nino phenomenon, which occurs roughly every four years, is caused by abnormal temperature increases in tropical waters and leads to global weather and climate anomalies. La Nina is caused by unusually cool water in the Pacific Ocean and affects weather conditions worldwide. Lu said the frequent and alternate occurrences of El Nino and La Nina may continue to affect China in the future. |
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