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China declares an emergency amid worst drought in 50 years - Times Online

The worst drought in half a century has parched fields across eight provinces in northern China and left nearly four million people without proper drinking water.

Not a drop of rain has fallen on Beijing for more than 100 days, the longest dry spell for 38 years in a city known for its arid climate. The Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters described the drought as a phenomenon "rarely seen in history" as the Government declared a state of emergency.

President Hu Jintao said that all efforts must be made to save the summer grain harvest.

by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Feb 5th, 2009 at 03:37:00 PM EST
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Guardian: Drought threatens Chinese wheat crop

A severe drought in northern China - considered the country's breadbasket - has hit almost 43% of the country's wheat crop this winter, senior officials have warned.

Low rainfall since October has affected more than 9.3m hectares (229.71 acres) of land in northern China across six major grain-producing provinces, according to the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters. Last week it warned that 3.7 million people and 1.85 million livestock had lost access to drinking water.


by Magnifico on Thu Feb 5th, 2009 at 04:08:12 PM EST
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I believe that northern china has been getting drier for years, NW chna has a horrible rate of desertification. Didn't they have to divert a large amount of water from croplands in the south to get green fields for the olympics last year ?

I don't think it's going to get any better for china. It'd make a lot of sense for them to encourage the russians to grow grain around L Baikal and ship it south. But that requires a labour force that's not there unless the russians let the chinese in and they don't want to.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Thu Feb 5th, 2009 at 06:21:15 PM EST
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