Chaos as drought hits Yangtze amid deadly Qinghai floods

China warned that severe drought conditions along the Yangtze could last well into next month as local governments race to maintain power and find fresh water to irrigate crops ahead of the autumn harvest.

Beijing has warned of the increasing risk of extreme weather in China as a result of climate change, and heavy rainfall continues to take its toll in other parts of the country.

Flooding in western Qinghai province killed 16 people, state media reported yesterday, with an additional 36 missing.

The Ministry of Finance is making 420 million yuan (HK$482 million) of emergency funds available for local governments to provide food and drought relief.

A severe heatwave across the basin of China's longest river, the Yangtze, caused by a larger-than-usual Western Pacific subtropical high, has lasted more than two months, slashing hydropower supplies and parching large expanses of arable land.

The river supports about a third of the country's population.

The sprawling southwestern region of Chongqing, where most of the Yangtze's Three Gorges reservoir is located, is scrambling to secure power from other parts of the country as supplies to industry are rationed, state media reported.

State Grid also promised to do its utmost to dispatch power to neighboring Sichuan, which normally supplies large amounts of surplus hydroelectricity to the east but is now imposing strict controls.

Normal water flows in the region could still be months away, with rainfall expected to remain low until the end of this month and beyond, said Liu Zhiyu, an official at the Ministry of Water Resources.

"It is expected that in September, water inflows in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze will still be low, and the drought in Anhui, Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi could develop further," Liu warned, referring to four major provinces on the middle reaches of the river.

Rainfall in the Yangtze basin has been 45 percent lower than normal since July, and high temperatures are likely to persist for at least another week, forecasts said.

Controlling water resources is crucial as China tries to guarantee food supplies and secure another bumper harvest.

Rice and other autumn crops were now at a "critical period" when it comes to irrigation, warned Liu Weiping, Vice-Minister of Water Resources, on Wednesday.

He said around 820,000 hectares of arable land from Sichuan to Anhui have suffered damage, affecting 830,000 people as well as 160,000 head of livestock.

Water levels on the main trunk of the Yangtze and the vital flood basin lakes of Dongting and Poyang are now at least 4.85 meters shallower than normal, and the lowest on record for the period, officials said.

Giant upstream reservoirs are now opening their gates to replenish storage levels at the Three Gorges Dam, which will which will release 830 million cubic meters downstream over the coming days.