Environment     

Drought grips northern China, ruining crops

CNTV, August 11, 2014

• Prolonged drought has ravaged farmland and caused drinking water shortages for at least 100,000 people in north China's Hebei Province and northeast China's Liaoning Province.

  Photo taken on Aug. 4, 2014 shows withered oil sunflowers in Shangzhuang village of Jiaocun Town in Lingbao, central China's Henan Province. Henan Province has suffered from meteorological drought since flood season. [Photo/Xinhua]

  Many hectares of crops have failed in Hebei Province's Nianzigou Village.

  "There has not been a penetrating rain since the spring. Even if it rains, it lasted for three or five minutes, with little precipitation. All the 35.7 hectares of crops have yielded nothing," said village Party secretary Gao Hai.

  It was learned that the average precipitation in the city of Baoding, Hebei Province, is only 157.6mm since the flood season set in, nearly 50 percent less than in the same period of a normal year, leading to crop failure on large tracts of land.

  "Drought has stricken the 84,000 hectares of crops in our city, with more than 33,000 hectares most seriously and at least 6,000 hectares ruined completely," said Zhang Xiaolan, deputy director of the Office of Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters in Baoding.

  The drought has affected 830,000 hectares of crops in Hebei Province, mostly in the mountainous areas of Baoding, Shijiazhuang and Chengde.

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