FILE - Cracks in dried mud are seen on a portion of the dry riverbed of the Jialing River in southwestern China's Chongqing Municipality, Friday, Aug. 19, 2022. Ships crept down the middle of the Yangtze on Friday after China's driest summer in six decades left one of the mightiest rivers barely half its normal width and set off a scramble to contain the damage to a weak economy in a politically sensitive year.
Normally bustling streets were empty after temperatures hit 45 C in Chongqing on Thursday. State media said that was the hottest in China outside the desert region of Xinjiang in the northwest since official records began in 1961."We cannot live through this summer without air conditioning," said Chen Haofeng, 22, who was taking pictures of the exposed riverbed. "Nothing can cool us down.
The drought's impact in Sichuan is unusually severe because the province gets 80 per cent of its power from hydroelectric dams. The city government of Chengdu, the Sichuan provincial capital, told households to conserve power by setting air conditioning no lower than 27 C. Another city, Dazhou, earlier announced rolling three-hour daily power outages for neighbourhoods.
The government says China's two main state-owned power companies, State Grid Ltd. and Southern Grid Ltd., are moving power from 15 other provinces to Sichuan.
Yikes
The Yangtze is the most managed river in the World. Dams and Reservoirs everywhere - 50,000 and counting. Stop Peddling Red Chinese Hyperbole
Drought , or seas are rising , conflicting CTV,sources .