Drought conditions in China are adversely affecting a large population across the east of China into eastern Tibet. Chinese farms are especially struggling, having severe and unprecedented negative impacts on the Chinese economy.
Sichuan is suffering the largest impact from the current drought conditions, which are the worst recorded in over 60 years. Conditions have worsened despite the fact that the province of 94 million people gets 80% of its electricity from hydropower dams. These water works are rendered inefficient, and many in the government agencies have continued pausing the projects as they simply cannot compete with consumption and usage.
Food processing and production factories have been shut down, air conditioners have been turned off in offices and shopping malls, and the national transportation system is grinding to a halt in order to reserve power.
Shanghai and other industrial centers were forced to shut down in late March to fight virus outbreaks. Since then, the growth in factory output and retail sales has been unable to help in China’s economic recovery. With the annual goal of 5.5%, the economic growth of just 2.5% was disheartening.
In Longquan, China, the crops are suffering in heat as high as 41 degrees Celsius (106 Fahrenheit). Half of Gan Bingdong’s total vegetable crop has been lost. The sight of hundreds of wilted persimmon trees in the greenhouse in southwestern China, in heartbreaking.
Gan’s eggplants, which should be ripening and growing, are no bigger than strawberries, and Gan is having to pump underground water as his reservoir has gone dry. This is the country’s driest in six decades.
With the forecast calling for high temperatures and no rain over the next few days, local authorities were ordered to “use all available water sources” to supply households and livestock, the weather agency said.
The provincial disaster committee stated that crops totaling 480,000 hectares (over 1.1 million acres) have been lost or damaged in Sichuan. It also said that 819,000 people face a drinking water shortage. The Shanghai news outlet, The Paper, reported that an estimated 1 million people will face drinking water shortages in Chongquing.
Citing local authorities, the official Xinhua News Agency reported that flooding killed at least 23 people and left eight missing, in the northwestern province of Qinghai. The report said that late Thursday mudslides and overflowing rivers hit six villages in Qinghai’s Datong County. 1,500 people were forced out of their homes.
We will continue to update on the survival and success of Chinese farms amid current 2022 drought conditions.
