China's largest freshwater lake triples in size due to downpour
Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake, has nearly tripled in size due to persistent heavy rains over the past two months. Its water level is still on the rise.
Days of continuous rain is bringing excess water to China's largest freshwater lake.
Over the weekend, waters in Poyang Lake in eastern Jiangxi Province exceeded the warning level of 19 meters.
Some roads and parks nearby were also flooded, and some are completely cut off.
SOUNDBITE (CHINESE): Resident, Yongxiu County
The flood is huge this year. It used to take me just over ten minutes to drive to Wucheng Town. But now I have to travel by boat, which takes 40 to 50 minutes.
Jiangxi Province has been battered by heavy downpours several times in this rainy season.
The provincial flood control headquarters asked cities and counties near the Yangtze River and Poyang Lake to prepare for floods and take response measures.
SOUNDBITE (CHINESE): ZHOU BIN, Official, Xingzi County water conservation bureau
The water level of Poyang Lake has exceeded the warning level. Xingzi County has initiated a level-four response. Eight dams in the county are guarded by eight teams. With the water level rising, we'll mobilize all emergency teams from the county, townships and villages, to patrol the dams.
+4:3 Prolonged drought renews debate over Gorges Dam
(3 Jun 2011)
Xingzi County, Jiangxi Province - June 2, 2011
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1. Close-up tilt up man covering up his boat
2. Wide shot of man covering up his boat
3. Wide tilt up of dried-up Poyang Lake
4. Close-up of dead fish and flies
5. Close-up of covered boat and water buffalo
6. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Tao Jingun, 49-year-old fisherman on Poyang Lake
This is the least water I've seen in over 30 years. There is nothing we can do except wait until next year.
7. Wide pan of fishing boats sitting on the dried-up lake basin
Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province - June 2, 2011
++16:9++
8. Close-up of water level gauge on bridge pier on Yangtze River
9. Close tracking of man's feet walking on dried-up bank of Yangtze River
10. Wide shot of man walking
11. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Fan Guofeng, 46 year-old Jiujiang city resident
In the past two and three years we have been feeling very obvious changes, such as droughts and even small earthquakes. I am pretty sure the Three Gorges Dam has had an effect.
Xingzi County, Jiangxi Province - June 3, 2011
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12. Wide of hydrographic officials observing water level on Yangtze River
13. Close-up of officials checking records
14. Mid of river bank
15. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Zhu Jianping, director of water monitoring, Poyang Lake Hydrographic Administration
Since the beginning of this year the amount of rainfall in the Poyang area has been seriously low. Statistics show that from January to May of this year, the Xingzi part of the Poyang Lake had only 280.5 millimetres of rainfall, which is the lowest amount in history and is 56% lower than the average amount.
Yongxiu County, Jiangxi Province - June 2, 2011
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16. Close-up of hoe moving in cotton field
17. Close-up of old man's face
18. Wide of old man hoeing field
19. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Li Gongfeng, 80-year old cotton farmer in Yongxiu County:
It is too dry and the cotton seedlings are dying. We have to carry some water from the river far away to keep them alive.
20. Wide shot of Li working on field
21. SOUNDBITE (Mandarin) Li Gongfeng, 80-year old cotton farmer in Yongxiu County:
I put my heart into it and hope for the best. If I don't plant there's sure to be no harvest, but if I do there's still a chance.
22. Wide and tilt up of cracked lake basin
23. Close up of cracks in ground
24. Close-up of fresh water oyster shell lying on dry lake bed
FILE: Hubei Province - May 24, 2008
++4:3++
25. Wide of Three Gorges Dam
26. Close-up of water beneath dam
27. Pan from dam shrouded in fog to downstream
STORYLINE:
China's worst drought in decades has hit fishermen and farmers badly in Jiangxi Province, in the east of the country, and some local people suspect the Three Gorges Dam may be partly to blame for changed weather patterns and a lack of rain along the Yangtze River, a claim the government denies.
Tao Jingun is a fisherman in Xingzi County, Jiangxi Province, but so far this year he has not been fishing.
His fishing nets are in storage, and his wooden fishing boat sits marooned, along with others, on a vast, shell-studded basin, cracked earth which just months ago was underwater at the bottom of Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in China.
It is now a field of green grass, and the lake has shrunk to a tenth of its usual size.
This is the least water I've seen in over 30 years. There's nothing we can do, said Tao, who usually earns about 6-thousand US dollars a year selling his catch from Poyang. This year he expects to earn nothing.
In the surrounding area, crops wither and (m) millions of people go thirsty.
Water levels in the reservoir are already very low and officials have been letting as much water out as possible since mid-May.
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