Heat and drought unprecedented in recent decades continue to hit central and eastern China. [VIDEO]

A heatwave of unprecedented intensity and duration in decades continues to hit central China, the nation that issued a maximum high temperature warning for the eleventh day in a row on Monday, local media reported.

The heat strikes with particular ferocity the provinces of the center and east of the Asian giant and the basin of the Yangtze River, the longest in China and the third in the world that runs through the center of the country.

Since August 1, more than 200 weather stations located in places such as Zhejiang (east), Chongqing (center), Sichuan (center) and Shaanxi (center) have recorded temperatures above 40 degrees, local publication Global Times reports.

Since July, rainfall in the Yangtze River Basin has been 40% lower than the same period a year earlier, the lowest since 1961.

Sichuan, the strongest blow

Slightly larger than Sweden’s and home to 84 million people, Sichuan province is experiencing its most extreme heat wave and least rainfall since records exist, according to local media, exacerbated by the region’s dependence on hydroelectric power generation to produce 80% of its energy.

Sichuan began shutting down many factories last week due to rising energy demand and production failing to meet it, with local authorities urging residents to limit their electricity consumption and use of air conditioners.

Other regions China 50 vehicles with emergency generators were sent to Sichuan to deal with power shortages.

The national authorities insist that last year’s situation, when industrial production in some important manufacturing centers of the country was interrupted due to supply shortages, resulted in power outages in residential areas in parts of the northeast.

“China will never allow a recurrence of incidents of the order of large-scale power outages,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said a few months ago.

Impact on crops and fires

Low rainfall also affects agriculture: mid-August is a “key” period for some crops in the middle and lower Yangtze, so the current drought “This, in particular, will reduce the harvest of soybeans and corn,” Sun Shao, an expert at the Academy, told local media. China meteorological sciences.

In the central province of Hubei, crossed by the Yangtze River, about 220,000 people have had difficulty accessing drinking water in recent days, and at least 690,000 hectares of agricultural land have been damaged by drought, according to official figures.

droughtwhich caused provincial capitals such as Nanjing (east) or Nanchang (center) to experience no rain this August, left an imprint as people in Chongqing (center) crossed the normally mighty Jialing River on a motorcycle whose bed was subjected to a drop in water level or the discovery of 600-year-old Buddhist sculptures still covered in water in the same city.

In addition, the drought sparked fires in the mountainous regions of Chongqing, which led to the evacuation of more than 1,500 people after the intervention of more than 5,000 members of the rescue services, firefighters and soldiers.

drought The situation will continue to worsen over the next ten days, Sun said, adding that it could even last a few more days “in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze.”

Local meteorologist Chen Lijuan recently explained that heat waves that start “earlier and end later” could become the “new normal” in the Asian country under the “effect of climate change.”

(As reported by EFE)

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