South China's Guangdong
Province may divert water from other southern and southwestern
areas to help fight the extended drought and the salt tide
currently plaguing the Pearl River Delta.
Vice Governor Li Ronggen said at a conference in Guangzhou, the
capital of Guangdong, that provincial water conservation
departments are in talks with the Ministry of Water
Resources and their counterparts in southwest China's Guizhou
Province and south China's Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Guangdong needs over 12 billion tons of fresh water before
spring arrives to prevent further damage.
Many large and medium-sized reservoirs in Guizhou and Guangxi
have abundant water reserves.
Guizhou's Tianshengqiao Reservoir alone has up to 10.2 billion
tons, about half of which can be used.
Li said that water supplies to more than 15 million people in
the delta region, Hong Kong and Macao will be affected in the
coming year unless something is done to?improve the situation
soon.
The water is also needed to combat the worst salt tide to hit
major cities in the Pearl River Delta region in 20 years. The delta
borders the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.
Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Zhongshan, Huizhou, Dongguan and
Foshan are the cities hardest hit by the salt tide.
Many waterworks on the Pearl River Delta have suspended
operations because of the situation, and monitoring of local water
quality has been increased.
The drought has so far affected more than 2.5 million people and
several million animals in Guangdong.
By the end of November, more than 930,000 hectares of farmland
in Guangdong had been seriously affected by the drought, an
increase of 200,000 from the figure reported the preceding Monday,
according to an official from the Guangdong Provincial Agriculture
Bureau. Of that amount, 320,000 hectares were completely
barren.
Guangdong's total agricultural yield is expected to fall
slightly this year, the official said.
The cities most seriously affected include Jieyang, Yunfu,
Zhaoqing, Meizhou, Shaoguan and Chaozhou.
The provincial government has invested more than 140 million
yuan (US$17 million) in fighting the drought.
The clouds have been seeded more than 200 times this year,
contributing 2 billion cubic meters of rainfall.
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Hainan
Province have also been hit by severe droughts this year.
(China Daily December 3, 2004)