Henan ramps up emergency measures for worst drought in 63 years

Suffering from the worst drought in 63 years, Henan province kicked off a level-three emergency response to drought on Monday, the China News Service reported.

With high temperatures persisting and June precipitation at just 96 millimeters, 60 percent lower than past averages, the drought had by July 27 affected about 245,000 people and 1.54 million hectares of farmland, the Zhengzhou-based Dahe Daily reported Tuesday.

The Henan provincial government has dispatched 18 supervision groups and had invested 1.06 billion yuan ($169.71 million) by Sunday to relieve the drought, the Daily reported.

The government plans to transfer water from Danjiangkou Reservoir to Pingdingshan, the thirstiest city in Henan.

The Yellow River Conservancy Commission, under the Ministry of Water Resources, has decided that Xiaolangdi Reservoir, located in Luoyang, Henan, will discharge 600 cubic meters per second to ease the drought in Zhengzhou, Kaifeng and Puyang, an increase from the earlier figure of 300 cubic meters per second.

The drought has severely hit the mountainous areas in western and northern Henan.

"This year saw the lowest rainfall since 1951. About 35 percent of small reservoirs and over 50 percent of small and medium-sized rivers have almost dried up," Yang Dayong, director of the provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, told the Dahe Daily.

Large and medium-sized reservoirs in the main cities are merely able to meet domestic and industrial water needs with no supply left for agricultural irrigation.

Yang pointed out three difficulties: no heavy rainfall predicted for the next 10 days, nearly exhausted surface water, and significantly falling groundwater levels.

"It is too early to estimate the influence exerted on the autumn grain output by the drought. August will probably witness heavy rain since it is the province's flood season," Li Xin, deputy director of the Plant Industry Division in the Agriculture Department of Henan province, told the Dahe Daily.

Most of Shanxi province has also suffered moderate or more severe drought since the middle of July and the drought in northern and southern Shanxi is expected to persist.