Water Shortages Threaten Over A Million As Yangtze Water Level Dips

WATER WORLD

A pontoon bridge leading to a tourist ferry sits on a nearly dried-up area of the Yangtze River in the central Chinese city of Chongqing, 08 March 2007. More than one million people in the city were threatened by potential water shortages after the water level of Yangtze river dropped to a near historic low, with nearly five million Chinese across the country being unable to get enough drinking water due to a series of droughts caused by "abnormally high" temperatures. Photo courtesy AFP.

by Staff Writers
Chongqing, China (AFP) March 08, 2007
More than a million people in one of China's biggest inland cities are facing water shortages after the level of the Yangtze river dropped to near historic lows, local authorities said Thursday. An official of the water agency for Chongqing, home to six million people, said the city had sounded alarm bells after the Yangtze reached its third-lowest level on record in late February.

The water level in the Jialing river, which flows into the Yangtze near Chongqing, also fell to a historic low on February 26, Yan Yonghui told AFP.

Access to water could become a problem for 1.2 million people in Chongqing if the water level continued to fall, said Yan.

"But the situation had eased a lot after hydropower stations in neighbouring Sichuan province started to discharge water at our request on March 3," Yan said.

"Now the water level is more than one metre (yard) above intakes."

Chongqing, one of four Chinese municipalities directly under the central government, has a population of 30.6 million if the residents of surrounding rural areas are also taken into account.

Source: Agence France-Presse

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