Society

China's fishermen suffering in drought

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-26 16:56

JINGZHOU, Hubei - A lingering drought has severely impacted the livelihoods of fishermen in several Chinese provinces and forced some of them to leave their homes.

In Central China's Hubei province, 217 of the 229 people living in the village of Yuye have abandoned their houseboats on the Honghu Lake, which has almost completely dried up because of the drought.

A fisherman tries to paddle his boat through a stream amid the partially dried-up Honghu Lake in Honghu city, Central China's Hubei province, on May 20. [Photo/Xinhua]

The Honghu Lake, the country's seventh-largest freshwater lake, is suffering the worst drought to hit it in 70 years, having gotten just 144 millimeters of rainfall from Jan 21 to May 21 this year, according to Chen Gang, chief engineer of the flood control and drought relief headquarters of the city of Honghu.

This amount of rain is just 21 percent of the amount recorded during the same period last year, Chen said.

"I was farming 20 mu (about 1.3 hectares) of fish and crabs. They all died. We are struggling to survive," said Xu Baoguo, a 29-year-old fisherman living in Yuye. The fisherman has packed his bags and moved out of the houseboat where he and his family resided for six years.

Most of the fishermen in the village used bank loans to fund their aquaculture farms, Xu said. These fishermen will almost certainly bear huge economic losses this year, he said.

All 1.16 million mu of Honghu's aquaculture farms have been affected by the drought, Chen said. The drought has already caused direct economic losses of 530 million yuan ($81.7 million), according to Chen.

A dozen fishermen who refused to give up their homes on the Honghu Lake have had to go without drinking water, as the lake has shrunk to a tiny 20-centimeter-deep stream, Xu said.

"Nobody dares to drink the muddy water in the stream," he added.

The government of the township of Luoshan, which administers the village of Yuye, has established a temporary resettlement center in a nursing home to accommodate fishermen who have fled their homes.

The government has provided the fishermen with drinking water and food, as well as 100 yuan each in subsidies, said Gong Yuqing, deputy head of the township.

"That's all we can do," he said.

In neighboring Hunan province, some fishermen living near the Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake, have had to seek jobs outside their hometown after the water level in the lake plummeted to a record low of 21.74 meters two weeks ago.

The long-lasting drought has plagued the Yangtze River, China's longest river, with the lowest levels of rainfall seen since 1961, said Wang Guosheng, chief director of the river's flood control and drought relief headquarters.

The drought has affected parts of Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi provinces, which are located near the middle and lower reaches of the river, Wang said. These areas have seen 40 to 60 percent less rainfall than usual, Wang said.