Just a quick note on a couple of interesting articles that surfaced today about the five-month drought in central China. The AP reports that Chinese businesses and residents are facing the largest energy crisis in years, as hydroelectric capacity is now at a low. Elaine Kurtenbach reports about the worst-affected areas:
The worst will be a shortfall of more than 11 million kilowatts, or 16 percent of total demand, in Jiangsu, upriver from Shanghai along the Yangtze, where drought has sapped water levels to their lowest ever at some points, stalling shipping.
Farmers are feeling it too: Edward Wong writes in the New York Times that nearly 1400 reservoirs in Hebei province are so low they’re no longer usable for agriculture. The drought is also raising questions about the viability of the South-North Water Diversion, a project decades in the making that is planned to divert water from the Yangtze to Beijing and Tianjin. Emergency water has been released from the Three Gorges Dam to facilitate shipping through the crucial waterway.