Explained | China’s record heatwave, drought and the fallout

China’s longest sustained heatwave and drought has disrupted water supply and caused a power crunch leading to factory shutdowns

The story so far: China, the world’s second-largest economy, is now 74 days into its longest and most intense heatwave in more than 60 years, with about 4.5 million sq. km or nearly half of its total land area under the grips of extremely high temperatures, according to the World Meteorological Organisation. This is compounded by a severe drought that has shrunk several rivers including Asia’s longest and the world’s third largest river, the Yangtze, leading to the closing of shipment ways in sizable tranches of the crucial trade waterway.

On Tuesday, August 23, four government departments issued a joint warning that China’s autumn harvest, which constitutes 75 per cent of the country’s annual grain produce, was under “severe threat” from the heatwave and drought.

While high temperatures continue, the National Meteorological Center put out on its social media channel that the heat was expected to fall in parts of central China by Wednesday, and in Sichuan and Chongqing from August 29. 

The scathing regional heatwave which started on June 13 has now spread across Sichuan in the South and Henan in the central region to the Jiangsu province on the East Coast. More than 200 national weather observatories have registered record high temperatures, with the heat having touched 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) in the Beibei district in Southwest China’s Chongqing last week. The heatwave has affected more than 900 million of China’s 1.4 billion population and led to a power crunch as people use more air conditioning to battle the heat.

China’s National Meteorological Centre for the twelfth consecutive day on August 23 issued a red alert warning- the highest in the three-tier heat warning system where red is followed by orange and yellow- for the southern part of the country. This was also the 34th day in a row for high-temperature warnings by the national observatory.

The heatwave has brought along a record drought since July 1, which has affected half of China’s total landmass, according to a chart issued by the National Climate Centre on August 24. The most damaging effect of the drought has been felt in the Yangtze River Basin, which stretches from coastal Shanghai to Sichuan in the southwest and hosts a population of 370 million. Notably, the drought has also reached the generally frigid Tibetan plateau region.

The Yangtze river, supplying drinking water to more than 400 million people and crucial to China’s economy, is witnessing water flows more than 50 per cent below its average over the last five years, The Guardian reported. It added that the drought has affected more than 2.4 million people as well as 2.2 million hectares of agricultural land.