Extent of drought in China's largest fresh water lake

Weeks of record heat and drought has shrunk China's largest freshwater lake and left the surrounding rice producing areas under a serious water supply shortage. Poyang Lake had fallen to about 600 square kilometers from nearly 4,000 square kilometers in April.

In China,Jiangxi is one of the 13 major grain producing provinces and the area around Poyang Lake is the main rice producing area in the province.  Local authorities help farmers setting up pipelines to channel water of reservoirs digging wells to pump up ground water in order to relieve the drought in paddy fields. Experts say that is part of a trend linked to global warming. Power rationing that forced factories in the southwest to shut down has been extended due to low water at hydroelectric dams, adding to losses from the hottest, driest summer in decades.