South China's island province of Hainan's
anti-drought department warned this week that the drought in Hainan
has reached a serious level.
The island's drought has lasted since the beginning of this year
and more than 45 percent of the region's farmland and 64 of the
middle and small rivers have dried up.
The province divides the drought situation into four grades, and
this year's drought has reached the second worst level.
The decrease of underground water has resulted in reverse flow of
sea water into the province's main river, the Wanquan River, which
now has about eight kilometers of salty water. Nearly 26,700 rural
people from 208 villages along the river are having difficulty
obtaining drinking water and about 1,766 hectares of farmland lacks
water resources.
To solve the drought problem, the provincial department issued
Hainan's first anti-drought scheme earlier this week. This gives
specific directions for anti-drought measures at different grades.
The scheme will go into effect March 1st this year.
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According to the department, the scheme can only be launched when
the province's drought situation reaches the second most serious
grade.
The scheme said when the province is in serious or most serious
drought, all local governments should ensure essential water demand
for daily life and key industries.
At the same time, daily water supply to urbanites will be
controlled, limiting water use to 100 liters per person, said the
scheme.
In case of an emergency, the sealed underground water can also be
used and relevant water power stations can be closed, said the
scheme.
The provincial weather department forecasts that Hainan will see
limited rainfall before May. As a result the underground water
storage will continue to reduce by 50 million cubic meters each
month.
The provincial government is increasing financial support to the
drought-hit areas. After the first sum of ten million yuan
allocated to local governments last November, eight million yuan
additional anti-drought fund was also distributed to the
drought-hit areas earlier this month.
(Xinhua News Agency February 26, 2005)