Unprecedented drought
This year's drought in China has been widespread and severe than ever. The first signs of drought in southern China appeared in July. By the first week of August, these signs had been confirmed. The drought is currently severe, although temperatures have begun to drop and it is raining.
China's temperature maps show that southern China has been hot red and dry for nearly two months. Half of China's total area is affected by extreme heat. This is the worst heat and drought in the past 6 decades.
The entire Yang Zi basin was affected. The main reservoirs: Ba Duong Lake in Giang Tay and Dong Dinh Lake in Hunan are almost dry. Parts of the Yangtze River are at their lowest water level since data began to be collected.
The heat also fueled forest fires. The drought has never had a profound impact on hydropower production, shipping, industrial and agricultural production. All of this has led to China declaring a state of emergency for droughts for the first time. The harsh weather is likely to severely impact China's economy.
In contrast to previous periods, industrialization and massive economic growth have increased China's general demand for water. According to tradition, the North lacks water. In 2003, China launched the $60 billion Southern Ocean Transition Project. This project converts water from the Yangtze River basin to supplement the dry North. The goal is to achieve an annual water transfer capacity of 21 billion cubic meters by 2030 and eventually double that volume.
However, even this huge amount of water will not be able to meet China's unprecedented thirst. Therefore, additional plans have been implemented such as a large canal and the Dan Giang Bo Han tunnel from the Three Gorges Dam to Beijing. Other plans include moving water from the Tibet Plateau or Lake Baikal in Russia.
However, the southern part of China that wants to move its country to the North is currently experiencing the biggest drought. It has put all of China's favorite infrastructure plans in a difficult position. That means agricultural products in the Northern Delta of China (60% wheat, 45% corn, 35% cotton and 64% peanuts) may face risks later.
Warning about relying on " unsustainable" hydropower plants
The current drought in southwestern China has highlighted the vulnerability of provinces such as the four continents that rely heavily on hydropower and warned that the country needs to diversify energy supply to deal with severe weather conditions in the future - SCMP said.
Sichuan depends up to 80% of its energy on hydropower, while the province is one of the areas most severely affected by the current drought. Tu Xuyen's hydropower output has been reduced by half in the past two months.
Residents in Dat Chau city said that Tieu Ha Chuy dam - which usually produces enough electricity for 500 households - has not produced electricity for more than a month due to lack of water. Chau Giang River, where the dam was built, is now depleted, revealing rocks under the river.
The drought has dealt a heavy blow to Tu Xuyen, where there are 14 large hydropower stations. Earlier this month, the provincial government warned of "especially serious" power shortages and forced factories to close for several days.
According to Fan Xiao - a geologist of the province - the hydropower plant in Tu Xuyen has been developing for decades, but on a large scale since the 1980s and has accelerated further since the beginning of this century.
Although some areas of the province are currently experiencing rain, Fan warned that the current situation is unsustainable.
"Hydropower is strongly affected by the seasons during the year. The electricity crisis reminds us that we cannot rely too much on this source of energy. In addition, hydropower development in Sichuan is not sustainable because it has degraded river ecosystems and no river flows freely, he said.
Hydropower accounts for about 20% of China's power supply. The impact of the power crisis has also gone beyond Sichuan and spread to other production centers such as the coastal provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, forcing factories to temporarily suspend production.
Kang Junjie, a researcher at the Energy Institute of Beijing University, said authorities should assess this extreme weather phenomenon and analyze whether severe droughts will become more common in the future.
If it happens every two or three years, we may need to invest in other energy sources such as gas or coal to deal with the power crisis, but if it happens every few decades or once every three decades, we should make cautious decisions, he said.
China is committed to carbon neutrality by 2060 and Kang said that if it wants to achieve this goal, it will have to improve the diversity and flexibility of the power system.
"Tu Xuyen has a high proportion of hydropower plants. But if we look at the whole of Western China, that rate is not high. Meanwhile, this area has solar power, wind power, coal power and hydropower. That is why it is better to allocate resources over a larger area.
