Drought Eases in Parts of Henan, Shaanxi and Hebei; Drought-Affected Provinces and Regions Go All Out to Fight Drought and Protect Autumn Grain

According to the website of the Office of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, in recent days the eastern part of Northwest China, North China and most of the Huang-Huai region experienced relatively strong rainfall processes, with areal average rainfall of 29 mm in Shaanxi, 16 mm in Henan, 28 mm in Shanxi, 16 mm in Shandong, 16 mm in Hebei and 19 mm in Anhui. This rainfall process was very favorable for alleviating the drought.

The drought in central and southern Shaanxi, northwestern Henan and southern Hebei was alleviated, and the drought in Anhui Province was lifted, but the drought-affected area in central and northern Hubei continued to receive little rain, and the drought worsened somewhat. According to statistics as of August 7, the area of crops affected by drought 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. Across the country, 1.96 million people and 2.57 million large livestock had difficulty accessing drinking water because of the 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.

Party committees and governments at all levels in the drought-affected areas attached great importance to the current drought relief work and went all out to organize the broad masses of cadres and people to carry out drought relief and disaster reduction. Henan, Shandong and Inner Mongolia launched a Level III emergency response for drought relief in recent days, and Shaanxi and Hubei launched a Level IV emergency response for drought relief. All localities in the drought-affected areas scientifically dispatched water conservancy projects and adopted various measures such as inter-regional water transfer, well drilling for water, water delivery by truck and the construction of emergency water source projects, going all out to ensure the safety of drinking water for urban and rural residents and striving to guarantee water for agricultural production. All localities organized large numbers of government officials and technical personnel to rush to the front line of drought relief at the grassroots level, directing from the front and assigning responsibility area by area to ensure that all kinds of drought relief measures were grasped tightly, well and effectively. 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 drought relief irrigation area of 170 million mu-times.

⟦NL> In the course of fighting the summer and dog-day drought, drought relief service teams in Henan Province opened drought relief service hotlines and made the commitment that “if the masses have difficulties in fighting drought, please contact the drought relief service teams.” More than 80 drought relief service teams across the province took the initiative to provide water delivery, well drilling and water-finding services for the masses. The 87 county-level drought relief service teams in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region used drought relief equipment purchased with funds allocated by the central finance since 2011 to drill more than 760 new mechanical and electrical wells and repair and renovate more than 3,800 mechanical and electrical wells for herders, temporarily solving the drinking water difficulties of 30,000 people and 150,000 large livestock. The 52 county-level drought relief service teams in drought-affected areas of Hubei Province successively dispatched 1,700 person-times of drought relief personnel, carrying 1,520 units and sets of machinery and equipment, completed drought relief irrigation of 300,000 mu of farmland and solved the drinking water difficulties of more than 20,000 people. According to statistics, since the beginning of summer, drought relief service organizations at all levels in the drought-affected areas have cumulatively invested 28,000 person-times of drought relief personnel, 50,000 unit-times of drought relief equipment and 30,000 truck-times of water trucks, cumulatively drilled 13,000 emergency wells, repaired and leased 100,000 units and sets of drought relief equipment, delivered more than 80,000 tons of water, completed drought relief irrigation area of more than 10 million mu and temporarily solved the drought-related drinking water difficulties of more than 200,000 people.