Yangtze river traffic troubled by drought
June 1, 2011 Category Inland river transport, Logistics
Authorities were trying to unsnag snarled shipping traffic in May and prevent accidents along the drought-stricken Yangtze River, a key route to fast-growing inland markets. The government said a prolonged dry spell had left water flows dangerously low along the river. Water levels at some measuring stations had dropped to record low levels. The problem is adding urgency to plans to spend CNY18 billion to dredge much deeper channels through the lower reaches of the heavily silted waterway – a crucial step in an effort to develop major inland ports to handle growing cargo volume as manufacturers shift production away from heavily developed coastal regions. Shanghai, at the mouth of the Yangtze, has long had to conduct dredging operations to keep its ports accessible. Jiangsu province and the Ministry of Transport plan to deepen navigation channels along the lower Yangtze to enable 50,000 DWT vessels, such as bulk freighters, to travel as far as Nanjing. Further inland, Wuhan and Chongqing face even larger hurdles: the water level at Hankou in Wuhan was only 2.87 meters in early May, below its dry-season average level of 4 meters. The water level of the Yangtze river has dropped sharply since February, with its middle reaches falling to levels not seen in 50 years. Dozens of emergency teams were deployed along the river’s middle reaches to help prevent accidents. Authorities in Hubei province decided in the middle of May to close the middle reaches of the Yangtze river due to the persistent drought conditions between Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, and Yueyang city in Hunan province. Although sluice gates in the Three Gorges Dam have been opened partially to allow more water to flow downstream, shallow water continued to impede shipping traffic until June, Wu Heping, Director of the Waterway Management Department under the Changjiang (Yangtze river) Wuhan Waterway Bureau, told China Daily.
“The severe drought, the first seen in the past half century, has kept the water level in the Yangtze the lowest since 2003, when the Three Gorges Dam went into operation. Even though heavy rains are expected in coming months, it’s possible they won’t raise the water level much along the Yangtze river,” Wu said in mid-May. He added that the waterway is about 150 meters wide on average, which is 50 meters narrower than it was in 2010. Some experts blamed the low water level along the Yangtze river on the Three Gorges Dam, but Yan Fei, Director of the China Three Gorges Corporation’s press office, said such assertions were groundless, as the dam’s increased discharge of water has helped to relieve the drought. The Three Gorges Dam has been ordered to release nearly five billion cubic meters of water in a two weeks time period to help relieve the severe drought downstream amid grim forecasts of a prolonged dry spell. At full capacity, the dam holds back 39.3 billion cu m of water, so it has been ordered to release about 12% of that amount.
- KURT VANDEPUTTE (UMICORE) APPOINTED CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF THE FLANDERS-CHINA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE (FCCC)
- Webinar: “Knowing Your Chinese Partner” – May 26, 2021, 10 am – 12 am
- EMA starts rolling review of CoronaVac, WHO approves Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use
- The Global Times warns not to politicize the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI)
- Hainan to become biggest duty-free market in the world