Shocking Photos Show China's Historic Drought

The heat wave has been relentless, with many areas routinely seeing highs of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.9 degrees Celsius) or more. Tuesday was the 12th day in a row that Chinese officials issued a “red alert” for high temperatures, after officials said more than 60 weather stations across the country saw record-high temperatures on Sunday alone. On Wednesday, the threat level was finally downgraded to “orange.” However, temperatures in parts of the country were still extremely high: a weather station in Sichuan Province on Wednesday logged a record-high reading of 111 degrees Fahrenheit (43.9 degrees Celsius).

Rainfall since July has been around 45% lower than normal in the Yangtze basin, which covers almost one-fifth of China’s total land area and one-third of China’s total population. The Yangtze River, Asia’s biggest river, is so low that it’s sitting at around half of its usual width.

In addition to problems with the Yangtze, on Friday, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said that at least 66 rivers in 34 provinces in the country’s southwest had dried up. Last week, state media reported that fire trucks have had to deliver drinking water and irrigation water to villages outside the city of Chongqing. The Sichuan government said some 819,000 people could have shortages of drinking water, while the province of Hubei on Saturday declared a drought emergency.

Some 80% of Sichuan Province’s power comes from hydropower, and some reservoirs are at half capacity this month, the Sichuan Provincial Department of Economics and Information Technology said.

Chinese news outlets reported that the government has extended power rationing, which began last week, through this week. Earlier this week, CCTV reported that some shopping malls in Chongqing were forced to operate on a limited schedule to save electricity, opening to shoppers between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. Offices and malls also had lights, elevators, and air conditioning shut off, while subway stations dimmed their lights and a skyline in Shanghai went dark to save power.

Last week, as the grid was stretched increasingly thin, many factories in Sichuan province were ordered to shut down production for four days due to power cuts. A Tesla factory, as well as a factory belonging to SAIC Motor, China’s largest car manufacturer, had their production affected. Other factories, including some that make processor chips and parts for solar panels, were also ordered to close.

“Leave power for the people,” an order from the provincial government said Thursday.

Like other places in the world experiencing drought, low waters in the Yangtze have revealed some seldom-seen sights and surprising finds. In Chongqing, the plunging Yangtze levels have exposed three Buddhist statues carved into a usually underwater rock. Chinese media agency Xinhua reported that the statues were around 600 years old, probably built during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Meanwhile, Guanying Pavilion, a 700-year-old building that often looks like it’s floating right on the river, is sitting unusually high this year, its normally hidden rock base massively exposed with the Yangtze so low.

In Hubei, the government said 17 million acres of crops had been damaged or lost due to the drought. Xinhua reported that the drought was affecting some 36,700 hectares (90,690 acres) of land. On Tuesday, government agencies issued a warning that the crucial autumn grain harvest was under “severe threat” from the drought.

Gan Bingdong, a farmer who lives south of Chongqing, showed the AP how his persimmon trees have died, while his eggplant crop is puny; Gan said he had been forced to pump groundwater to water his crops after the reservoir he usually uses has run dry.

“This year’s high temperatures are very annoying,” Gan told the AP.

On Friday, the Chinese government said it would take steps to geoengineer enough precipitation to protect the fall grain crop, which accounts for 75% of the country’s total grain output. The AP reported that the Agricultural Ministry said on its website it would inject chemicals into the atmosphere to try to encourage rain, as well as spray crops with a special “water-retaining agent.”

On Monday, more than 1,500 people in Chongqing had to be evacuated due to brushfires that have been burning for days around the edges of the city. CNN reported that some city dwellers posted to social media about smelling smoke from inside their apartments; others posted photos of embers that had blown into their homes from the fires.