POYANG LAKE, CHINA: Normally surrounded by water in August, an island topped by a pagoda in China Poyang Lake is now fully visible, bearing witness to the dramatic impact of a long drought and Heat wave on a vital part of the country’s irrigation infrastructure.
China’s largest freshwater lake, Poyang is known as the “kidney” because of the role it plays in regulating the flow of the Yangtze River in the central province of Jiangxi, taking on flood waters during the normally wet summer, then receding dramatically during the dry autumn and winter.
This year, as a record-breaking heat wave across the entire Yangtze basin spans more than 70 days, the lake has shrunk much earlier than usual to just one-fifth its size. ‘few months ago.
Locals say they’ve never seen anything like it.
“Last year there was water in the lake,” said Zhang Daxian, 57, who makes a living there. “This year, I don’t know what happened. It’s so dry.”
Poyang’s hydrological functions have also been eroded over the years by sand mining and the construction of the Three Gorges and other large-scale dams upstream.
Authorities have proposed building a large sluice gate to exert more control over water flows – a move criticized by environmental groups.
Zhang, a Buddhist, is paid 1,000 yuan ($146) a month by the local government to clean up the island, known as Luoxing Pier, when the water level drops, a job usually required for half of the year.
“This year it’s been dry for…almost two months. The water was supposed to recede in mid-September, but this year…it dried up in mid-July,” he said. -he says.
On Wednesday, residents were able to comfortably walk on the cracked and baked flats of the lake on Wednesday, walking through mussels and dead fish – although some took it in their stride.
“It’s just climate changesaid Zhang, a 51-year-old man who worked for the local fisheries administration. ” It happens. It’s normal.”
Fishing was banned on Poyang Lake in 2020.
The narrowing has also affected navigation and drinking water supplies to nearby communities. Authorities have already released water from the Three Gorges and Danjiangkou reservoirs to alleviate shortages downstream, state broadcaster CCTV said on Tuesday.
Du Lei, an engineer with the Ministry of Natural Resources’ remote sensing center, told CCTV that the lake continued to recede and some of its smaller feeder rivers had completely dried up.
“The whole northern part of the lake looks more like a river due to the narrowing of the lake surface,” he said.
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