China(Washington Insider Magazine)-CHONGQING, CHINA (Transatlantic Today) — China asserts it would use chemicals to induce rain in an effort to protect its grain crop from the nation’s worst drought, as industries in the southwest waited to find out on Sunday whether they would be closed for another week owing to a lack of water for hydropower production.
Crops have shriveled due to the warmest and driest summer since Chinese records began 61 years ago, and reservoirs only have half the average amount of water in them. According to ABC NEWS, industries in Sichuan province were closed down last week to conserve energy for households due to an increase in demand for air conditioning during temperatures as high as 45 degrees Celsius.
According to the daily Global Times, the next ten days are a “key period of damage resistance” for the rice harvest in southern China. .
According to the report, Agriculture Minister Tang Renjian stated on Friday that authorities would take immediate action to safeguard the autumn grain harvest, which accounts for 75% of China’s yearly total.
According to Tang’s ministry’s website, the government will attempt to increase rainfall by chemically seeding clouds and spraying fields with a water-retentive substance to reduce evaporation. No information on the location of that was provided.
The upheaval increases the difficulties for the ruling Communist Party, which is attempting to revive the economy before a meeting in October or November when President Xi Jinping is anticipated to seek re-election for a third 5-year term in office.
A reduced grain crop in China might have an effect on the entire world. Import demand would increase as a result, contributing to the upward strain on inflation in Europe and the US, which is already at multi-decade highs.
Also on Sunday, thousands of Sichuan province enterprises that produce solar panels, computer chips, and other industrial goods awaited word on whether the previous week’s 6-day shutdown would be prolonged.
The lockdown will continue through Thursday, according to a document that went viral on social media and claimed to be from the Sichuan Economic and Information Industry Department, although there was no official confirmation.
The province government’s and the economic agency’s phones were unanswered. At the State Grid Ltd. branch in Sichuan, a woman who received the call claimed that she had not seen any notice about the shutdown’s extension. She refused to reveal her name.
Hundreds of acres of harvests are completely lost, according to the administrations of Sichuan and the nearby province of Hubei, and millions have been affected.
On Saturday, the administration of Hubei declared a drought emergency and announced the disbursement of disaster aid. According to the Sichuan government, 819,000 people lack access to clean drinking water.
Due to the fact that hydroelectric dams provide Sichuan with 80% of its energy, it has been severely damaged by the drought. According to the provincial authorities, reservoir water levels are only half normal. Shopping centers and offices in Sichuan were told to turn off the lights and air conditioning after it had earlier urged producers to “leave power for the people.” The provincial capital of Chengdu’s metro system claimed to have switched off thousands of station lights.
According to the official Xinhua News Agency, which cited local authorities, flooding in the northwest province of Qinghai resulted in at least 25 fatalities and 8 missing.
Six villages in Qinghai’s Datong county were affected late on Thursday by mudslides and overflowing rivers, according to the report. 1,500 individuals had to be evacuated from their houses.
