*Heatwaves have swept across many parts of China this summer. The National Meteorological Center continued to issue a red alert for high temperatures, the most severe warning in China's four-tier color-coded weather warning system, on Monday, the 11th consecutive day.
*Facing shortages of water and power supplies in drought-affected regions, governments of all levels in China have stepped up efforts to combat drought and ensure normal production and people's livelihoods.
NANCHANG, Aug. 22 -- Three kilometers of piping winds through the mountains, carrying water up to the hillside Dougang village. Nie Xiaolong, standing with his hands on his hips near the end of the pipe, felt relieved seeing water diverted into his paddies.
Not long ago, Nie, 42, was worried about the 200 hectares of crops he manages in Ruichang City, east China's Jiangxi Province due to a drought triggered by sustained hot weather and low precipitation lasting several weeks.
"I thought I might not be able to make it," said Nie. "Thanks to the local government's help to install water pumps and lay the pipes, my crops have been saved."
Heatwaves have swept across many parts of China this summer. China's National Meteorological Center continued to issue a red alert for high temperatures, the most severe warning in China's four-tier color-coded weather warning system, on Monday, the 11th consecutive day.
Facing shortages of water and power supplies in drought-affected regions, governments of all levels in China have stepped up efforts to combat drought and ensure normal production and people's livelihoods.
ENSURING FARMLAND IRRIGATION
Jiangxi is home to Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake. On Aug. 6, the lake officially entered this year's dry season, the earliest date since records started in 1951 and 69 days earlier than the average starting date between 2003 and 2021.
As of 8 a.m. Monday, the lake's water area totaled 575 square km, 2,475 square km less than that of previous years, according to the Jiangxi provincial water resources department.
Aerial photo taken on Aug. 17, 2022 shows the Luoxingdun islet standing on the dried lake bed of Poyang Lake in east China's Jiangxi Province. (Xinhua/Wan Xiang)
Officials in drought-affected areas are fighting on the frontline day and night. Xu Yunping, head of Sanjiao Township in Yongxiu County, is one of them.
Although it is located adjacent to the river, a primary pumping irrigation station in Sanjiao Township was unable to work, because the water has receded to about 40 meters away from the pump's intake point. Xu decided to dig a water channel.
The 40-degree Celsius heat made it impossible for the excavator operators to work during the day, so they had no choice but to work through the night.
After 10 hours of working non-stop, a water channel of about 200 meters long and 4 meters wide came into service, ensuring irrigation for more than 3,300 hectares of rice fields.
Across Jiangxi, over 15,000 pumping stations and more than 308,000 sets of mobile drought-relief equipment have been put into use, along with other efforts, which have reduced around 3 billion yuan (about 440 million U.S. dollars) worth of grain loss.
According to the Ministry of Water Resources, since July, the drought has affected over 821,000 hectares of farmlands in several provincial-level regions including Sichuan, Chongqing, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi and Anhui.
Weather forecasts have indicated that heatwaves in some regions will last until late August, a crucial time for the growth of autumn grain, posing challenges to the country's autumn grain production, which makes up about 75 percent of China's annual grain output.
