Major agricultural province in east China adopts measures to ease drought

HEFEI, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- East China's Anhui, a major agricultural province, has adopted a range of measures such as digging wells, diverting water and launching artificial rainmaking to ease the impact of the recent drought which has affected its crop growth.

Cheng Mingchuan, a veteran farmer, arrived at his cropland in Weigang Village, Shouxian County of Anhui, early Tuesday morning. He had invited a well-drilling team to help dig a well next to his rice paddy for irrigation.

"I plan to dig a well with a depth of 60 to 70 meters, which takes about two days," said Cheng, who owns more than 20 mu (about 1.33 hectares) of cropland together with his brother. The two brothers are counting on the well to water their rice, which is currently at the booting stage.

Continuous high temperatures and low rainfall have dried local rice paddies to varying degrees. From May 1 to Aug. 22, the average precipitation in the province was merely 360 millimeters, about 60 percent of that of normal years, according to the provincial department of water resources.

In the face of drought, the local government and villagers have made joint efforts to minimize losses caused by the disaster.

"We have drilled 15 wells in our village and three more are still under construction. The water output of each well in 24 hours can guarantee the irrigation of about 10 mu of land," said Jiang Jian, Party chief of Weigang Village.

Over 26,100 wells, both new and old, have been drilled or reused in the fight against drought across the province. A total of 751 million yuan (about 110 million U.S. dollars) had been utilized to irrigate, through different means, an accumulated farmland area of over 87.6 million mu by Wednesday, said the provincial department of agriculture and rural affairs.

The scorching weather and scarce rainfall have also lowered the water level of the Yangtze River, which runs through Anhui. Laozhou Township, an important vegetable planting base of Tongling City in Anhui, is located on an island in the Yangtze. The river's water level has kept receding in the Tongling section since the start of this summer.

"The water level is over 4 meters lower than that of previous years. We need to lower the pumps constantly to fetch water from the river for irrigation," said Pan Heping, head of a pumping station at the township.

As water started to be drawn from the Yangtze, Hong Xiang, who runs a vegetable plantation of 142 mu in the township, felt released.

"The island is mainly made of sandy soil and thus planting vegetables here consumes lots of water. Fortunately, the township has organized to divert water from the river to the ditches, which consequently allows us to water vegetables easily. This practice has greatly reduced losses caused by the drought," said Hong.

China's national observatory continued to issue an orange alert for drought on Thursday as heatwaves persist in multiple regions.

Moderate to heavy rainfalls are forecast to ease droughts in some parts of Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian and Sichuan over the next three days, said the National Meteorological Center.

The center advised local authorities to use emergency water sources and dispatch available water sources within their regions to ensure the supply of water, particularly for urban and rural residents and livestock. It also suggested promoting strict water conservation and producing artificial rainfall when necessary.