Asia's longest river, the Yangtze, has fallen to its lowest level in 142 years. Prolonged drought is blamed for the drop which has disrupted drinking supplies, stranded ships and imperilled already endangered species of marine life. Fron the Sydney Morning Herald:
The scale of the problem was revealed by the Yangtze Water Resources Commission in a report on the Xinhua news agency's website. It said that the Hankou hydrological centre near Wuhan city found the river's depth had fallen to its lowest level in 142 years.
The measurement confirmed fears raised in recent weeks by the appearance of islands and mudflats not normally seen at this time of year. Local farmers reported far more ships than usual being trapped in unnavigable shallow waters.
Jianli county is among the areas suffering water shortages. Officials say the problem has grown worse in the past 10 years, raising concerns of a link to climate change.
"Before 1996, we were short of water for three months of the year, but now there are only three months when we can use water as normal," Wu Chunping, the vice-manager of Jianli county's water utility, said
Along the endangered animals likely to be affected are the finless porpoise and the Chinese sturgeon, which returns to the sea at this time of year.
With the Yangtze three times as crowded with traffic as the Mississippi, conservationists fear the animals will be torn up by boat propellers or contaminated by more concentrated pollution from the 9000 chemical plants along the Yangtze.
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