Poyang Lake, China: generally surrounded by water in August, China’s pagoda-topped island Poyang Lake now fully visible, testifying to the dramatic impact of the long drought and heatwave on a significant portion of the country’s irrigation infrastructure.
China’s largest freshwater lake, Poyang, is known as the “kidney” because of the role it plays in controlling the flow of the river. Yangtze River In central Jiangxi province, floodwaters take on a normally wet summer and then decrease dramatically during the dry autumn and winter.
This year, as record heatwaves in the Yangtze Basin spanned more than 70 days, the lake shrank much earlier than usual and is just one-fifth of its size from a few months ago.
Locals say that they have never seen anything like this.
“Last year there was water in the lake,” said 57-year-old Zhang Daxian, who makes his living there. “This year I don’t know what happened. It’s very dry.”
Poyang’s hydrological works have also been destroyed over the years by sand mining and the construction of the Three Gorges and other large-scale dams.
Officials have proposed building a larger sluice gate to have more control over the flow of water – a move criticized by green groups.
Zhang, a Buddhist, is paid 1,000 yuan ($146) per month by the local government to clean up on the island, known as the Luoxing Pier, when the water level drops, usually for half a year. job is required.
“This year it has been dry for almost two months. In mid-September the water was supposed to reduce, but this year… it dried up in mid-July,” he said.
On Wednesday, residents were able to walk comfortably on the broken and paved flats of the lake, walking through dead mussels and fish – although some took it in stride.
“this only Climate change, said 51-year-old Zhang, who worked for the local fisheries administration. “It happens. It’s normal.”
Fishing was banned on Poyang Lake in 2020.
Shrinkage has also affected shipping and drinking water supplies for nearby communities. State broadcaster CCTV said on Tuesday that officials had already released water from the Three Gorges and Danjiangkou reservoirs to address the lack of flow.
Du Lei, an engineer at the Ministry of Natural Resources’ Remote Sensing Center, told CCTV that the lake was still receding, and that some of its smaller feeder rivers had completely dried up.
“The entire northern part of the lake is like a river because of the shrinking of the lake surface,” he said.
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