Thirsty Kunming on the lookout for forest fires

Kunming (CNS) – "It will be mainly sunny, hot with no rainfall expected for seven days" said the vice president of Kunming City Observatory Li Xiaopeng, February 9. The good weather is bad news for Kunming, a city in urgent need of water.

The provincial capital of Yunnan Province, southwest China, has labored under drought conditions since 2009, and is chronically short of drinking water with 478,300 people and 229,000 livestock acutely affected by the shortage.

The major reservoirs now only store 132 million cubic meters of water, and of these, Yulong and Songhuaba, two that function as water supplies to the core of the city, only contain 70 million cubic meters.

Kunming was already short 33 million cubic meters water before the rainy season started, and even with the local government enacting emergency measures, the shortfall is still 1.21 million cubic meters.

The next domino threatening to tumble is forest fires, brought on by the crackling dry conditions. Four cases of mountain fires were reported in Kunming on February 5 alone. For the foreseeable future, the weather grade warning for forests here will bounce between four and five, a strong reminder to guard against careless behavior in the woods.