Poyang Lake's water level rises back above 8 meters as drought eases

Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake located in East China's Jiangxi Province, has seen its water level rise back above 8 meters on Friday. The lake saw its water level hit a historical low of 6.68 meters on October 4 due to months of drought in the region, according to media reports.

The water level at a key monitoring point of Poyang Lake rose to 8.17 meters on Friday morning, and other major spots all rose above 8 meters, China Media Group (CMG) reported.

The rising water level of Poyang Lake was due to  recent rainfall and water replenishment from the Three Gorges Reservoir to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the report said, citing the local department of hydrology.

As the nation’s largest freshwater lake, Poyang Lake has been viewed as a barometer of the Yangtze River. Due to  continuous drought and lack of rainfall in  Jiangxi Province since July and the low water level of the main artery of the Yangtze River, the water level of Poyang Lake had fallen rapidly. 

On September 23, the lake’s water level fell to 7.10 meters, a historic low, after which Jiangxi's hydrological monitoring center issued a red alert of low water. 

The Yangtze River basin has seen a rare meteorological drought since the start of this year's summer. As of Sunday, the National Meteorological Center (NMC) had issued drought warnings on a daily basis for about two months.

Thanks to the recent rainfall in the Sichuan Basin, the overall dry zone has shrunk, with the northern and central areas of China’s Hubei and Anhui Provinces being relived from drought and the southern areas of these two provinces saw lowered levels of drought, the Public Weather Service Center of China Meteorological Administration (CMA) said, citing comparison of monitoring data of September 30 and October 13. 

With the water levels of Poyang Lake and the Jiujiang phase of Yangtze River continuously rising, Jiangxi on October 9 downgraded its drought emergency response from level II to level III. 

The NMC on Sunday predicted that the south coastal regions of the country and western regions of Southwest China’s Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces, and some other areas will see rainfall in the next three days, helping the overall relief of the drought. Yet, most parts of the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, such as southern parts of Anhui and Hubei will see drought continue into the following week as precipitation in these areas remain low.