Crisis grips China's largest freshwater lake (2)

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Crisis grips China's largest freshwater lake (2)

(Xinhua) 14:47, November 13, 2013

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CRIES FOR WATER

Statistics from the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters showed more than a million people living around Poyang have been suffering drinking water shortages since late October. Some counties have had to suspend industrial water use to ensure supplies to residents.

Yu Xiaoqiu, general manager of a water works facility in Duchang County, has acutely felt the growing hardship of supplying water to the county's more than 130,000 residents.

"We have had to set up extra equipment to pump water from the lake in the dry season in recent years. That costs huge human and financial resources," Yu said, adding that this year they used seven water pumps, compared to the four or five used several years ago.

Before the pumps began operating on Oct. 25, tap water had been cut off for nearly all the county's residents living above the third floor, according to Yu.

The prolonged dry season has also endangered the livelihoods of local fishermen, as September and October used to be the natural "golden period" for fishing.

They expected their income this year to plummet by 80 percent compared with several years ago, and some have made a career switch.

"In the good old days, I could easily get a harvest worth more than 4,000 yuan (656 U.S. dollars) a day in early November. But today, no more than 1,000 yuan," said Xiong Qin, a 45-year-old fisherwoman in Yugan County.

Humans are not the only victims. Lingering low water levels have killed a growing number of bottom-dwelling lake creatures, meaning less food for the lake's hundreds of thousands of migratory birds, said Dai Nianhua, head of the Poyang Lake Research Center of Jiangxi Provincial Academy of Sciences.

COMPREHENSIVE MEASURES

While the local government has taken contingency measures to ensure water supplies for residents and irrigation, experts suggested a package of measures be adopted to tackle the lake's water crisis.

Wang Hao, who is also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, proposed establishing a system to manage water discharge and dam storage upstream on the Yangtze and of dams built on the five rivers flowing into Poyang.

"If all the dams were to store water simultaneously, the Yangtze would dry up, and if they discharge water at the same time, there would be a flood peak. Therefore we must decide the order," said Wang, adding that he is carrying out related research.

Xu Xinfa, deputy director of the Jiangxi Provincial Hydraulic Research Institute, suggested upgrading existing irrigation facilities and pump stations, whose outdated designs cannot handle low water levels.

In fact, the provincial government of Jiangxi has been lobbying hard for a water project planned at the mouth of Poyang.

However, their idea to build sluice gates to help the lake store water during its dry season has aroused concerns that it may have a negative impact on the lake's ecology and affect water supply to areas downstream on the Yangtze during dry weather.

Despite opposition, the project passed the technical review of the Ministry of Water Resources this summer and is awaiting approval from the ministries of agriculture, forestry and environmental protection.