Chinese authorities will step up the release of water from the Three Gorges Dam in a bid to tackle a drought in southern China that has put pressure on drinking water, crops, shipping lanes and electricity production in what is traditionally China’s most water- abundant region.
The monsoon rains that usually flood southern China’s middle Yangtze river in spring did not come this year, and officials say rainfall in Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang is at its lowest level in more than 50 years.
“Such large-scale scarcity in southern China is very serious and the scale is much larger than before,” said Zhang Ximing, a water resources specialist at the World Bank who recently returned from drought-stricken Jiangxi.
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