National crop drought-affected area reduced by 12.47 million mu; drought eased in Henan, Shaanxi, Hebei and Anhui
Recently, the eastern part of Northwest China, most of North China and the Huang-Huai region experienced relatively strong rainfall. The drought in central and southern Shaanxi, northwestern Henan and southern Hebei has been eased, and the drought in Anhui Province has been lifted. However, the drought-affected area in north-central Hubei has continued to see little rain, and the drought there has somewhat worsened.
Our reporter learned from the national flood control and drought relief video conference held by the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters on the 7th that as of August 7, the drought-affected crop area nationwide was 64.26 million mu (the multi-year average for the same period is 120 million mu), a decrease of 12.47 million mu from before the rainfall, including a decrease of 6 million mu in Henan Province, 2.97 million mu in Shaanxi Province and 2.6 million mu in Hebei Province. Nationwide, 1.96 million people and 2.57 million large livestock had difficulty accessing drinking water due to drought (the multi-year averages for the same period are 10.11 million people and 7.22 million head), mainly distributed in Inner Mongolia, Hubei, Henan, Sichuan and other places.
Localities in drought-affected areas scientifically dispatched water conservancy projects and adopted various measures such as inter-regional water transfer, well drilling for water extraction, water delivery by truck and the construction of emergency water source projects to make every effort to ensure the safety of drinking water for urban and rural residents and strive to guarantee water for agricultural production. According to statistics, since the beginning of summer, Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Shaanxi, Hubei, Sichuan, Gansu and other provinces (regions) have invested a total of 9.12 million people in drought-relief labor, temporarily solved the drinking water difficulties of 1.68 million people, and completed 170 million mu-times of drought-relief irrigation.