Can China’s parched Poyang Lake still be a winter home for migratory birds?
- The country’s largest freshwater lake reduced to just 28 per cent of its normal size for this time of year
- Three months of drought have led to earliest dry season in records dating back to 1951
Standing on the northern shore of Poyang Lake, China’s largest freshwater lake, in late August, Li Yankuo took in a view normally seen only from November.
The vast waterbody had been transformed into small streams, and some parts had dried up, exposing the lake bed. A severe drought has now shrunk the lake to just 28 per cent of its normal size for this time of the year, turning much of the area into grassland.
China Central Television reported on Thursday that Poyang Lake measured just 638 sq km (246 square miles) late last month, while the historical average for the same period was 2,252 sq km.
“The lake entered the dry season 100 days early,” Li, an associate professor at Jiangxi Normal University’s college of life sciences, said.
That is the earliest dry season in records dating back to 1951. Water levels on Poyang Lake, as measured at Xingzi Station, hit a record low of 7.1 metres (23 feet) on September 23 – down from 19.43 metres – after three months of drought.
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China’s largest freshwater lake facing earliest dry season on record
Authorities in Jiangxi province issued a red alert for dwindling water supplies that day and came up with countermeasures, including the release of water from reservoirs, to help the 4.8 million people in the province affected by the drought sustain crop production.
