Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Eastern China is low on water. Shandong province is going through its worst drought in a century and at least 250,000 people are without drinking water. Southern China instead has had heavy snowfall. Many hope extreme weather will not interfere with this year’s Chinese New Year exodus.
Since October, rainfall in heavily populated Shandong was 86 per cent below average. In cities like Linyi, Rizhao and Weifang, the authorities have had to use fire trucks to deliver daily drinking water supplies to residents.
The government has launched a project to divert water from a tributary of the Yangtze River in the central part of the country to help alleviate the north's water woes. Water was originally due to begin flowing from the central line to Beijing last year but was postponed to 2014.
Other provinces in eastern and central China have experienced drought in the past three months. Recently, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visited Henan (pictured) to reassure the population that the government was committed to increasing water supplies.
The situation is dramatically different in southern China where heavy rain and snow have damaged crops and caused havoc to transportation. The Communist Party’s People’s Daily warned its readers to expect more snow in the southwestern region of the country by the middle of next week.
Weather is taking an especially heavy toll on agriculture at a time when the government is trying to contain rising food prices.
Last Friday, the authorities announced investments worth four trillion yuan in new water resource facilities in the next 10 years.
Drought has affected winter wheat crops in 17 per cent of growing areas in the northern breadbasket and dry weather is forecast to extend for months.
More droughts are causing headaches for the government, which will have to decide whether to send water to farming regions or highly populated industrial areas. Beijing itself has not had any major rainfall for more than three months, the longest dry spell in the city in 40 years.