China - Water Levels In Upper Yellow River Lowest Ever Recorded - Reuters

[hatrack]

BEIJING, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Water levels in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, China's second longest, have hit a historic low, Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday, after a senior official warned that China might run out of water by 2030. Hot weather and low rainfall led to the dry-up, with water flow over the first 10 months of the year down nearly 33 percent from the long-term average.

The river, which supplies water to over 150 million people and irrigates 15 percent of the country's farmland, is also at serious risk from over-exploitation, Li Guoying, director of the Yellow River Conservancy Committee, told Xinhua. Nearly two-thirds of the river's water is used for residential and industrial supplies, while international guidelines suggest a 40 percent limit, Li said.

Once known as China's sorrow because of its flooding, in recent years it has sometimes run dry before it reaches the sea.

From 1971 to 1998, its lower reaches were dry for 1,091 days although a new management system means there have been no entirely dry days since 1999, Xinhua said.

EDIT

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK320947.htm

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. Tough ass for them.

[JitterbugPerfume]

2. we ALL live on the spaceship Earth

Tough ass for all of us

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

3. Not only that, but it's YELLOW too!

:yoiks:

[amandabeech]

4. The Chinese are in a heap of trouble. n/t