Drought shrinks China’s biggest freshwater lake to a mere 10%
Lake Poyang, the largest freshwater body in China, has declined to just 10 per cent of its normal size since the onset of a drought in August, according to the local water resources authority.
With water levels at the landmark Xingzi hydrological station dropping to 7.99 meters, the lake entered an extreme low-water state at 8am on Tuesday, the earliest since records began in 1951, according to a media release from the hydrological monitoring centre in Jiangxi province, where Poyang is located.
The drop in water levels came 115 days earlier than usual and also breaks the previous record of November 30, 2019, by 85 days.
Jiangxi has received an average of 132.2 millimetres of rain since July, 57 per cent less than average and the lowest on record for the period. Continuing heat has resulted in average evaporation levels of 329mm across the province.
“Poyang’s water level dropped from 12 metres to 8 metres in only 31 days. This is historically rare,” the centre noted.
As a result, its water surface has shrunk to an area of 291 square kilometres, or 10 per cent of its usual size. The volume of water in the lake is also only about 10 per cent of normal levels.
Consistently high temperatures, low rainfall and a significant decrease in water emptying into Poyang are to blame, the centre said.
Monitoring stations at five major rivers that empty into Poyang have reported decreases of 30 to 80 per cent less runoff since July. The situation has been exacerbated since the middle of August, the centre said, adding that the lake has received much less water from the Yangtze River.
Hou Liqiang and Wang Jian
China Daily
Asia News Network
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