China continues to battle forest fires as fears linger over fall harvest

High temperatures drove up air conditioner use to around a third of the province's total power load, and hydropower generation is down by half as a result of low water levels.

The southwestern Chinese regions of Chonqging and Sichuan were battling fires on Tuesday as they awaited a long-anticipated drop in temperatures over the next week, but the country’s important autumn harvest remained under serious threat.

Officials warned this month that temperatures were rising faster in China than in the rest of the world and a record-breaking heatwave has raised concern about its ability to adapt to rapid climate change and conserve already scarce water resources.

Satellite images showed Poyang Lake, which usually takes in floodwaters from the Yangtze River over the summer, at a fraction of its normal size for the time of year, reducing drinking water supplies for nearby communities, state broadcaster CCTV said.

Water from the Three Gorges and Danjiangkou reservoirs had already been released to alleviate downstream shortages, the broadcaster said.

The drought posed a “severe threat” to China’s autumn crops, the ministry of agriculture said in a notice, adding that authorities had been instructed to do everything they could to increase water supplies and protect the harvest.

Farmers suffering from severe crop damage would be urged to replant, and cloud-seeding rockets would be made available wherever possible, the ministry said.

State forecasters said the heatwave, which has lasted more than two months, was about to hit a “turning point,” with a cold front coming in from the west and a typhoon approaching in the southeast.

Still, severe electricity shortages continued throughout the region, with the Sichuan capital of Chengdu turning the lights off on its subway trains to save power.