March 12, 2009

Small canals and sluices that link China's reservoirs and major rivers with farmlands are too old to channel enough water for crops, and may threaten the safety of the country's grain supply, said lawmakers Wednesday (Mar 11).

Hua Youxun, Party secretary of Zhumadian city of Henan Province, said China has paid much attention to build big reservoirs and waterways but overlooked the construction of smaller ditches and channels, some of which have not been renovated for decades.

Hua also said the city, a major grain producing area with annual output of around 6.5 million tonnes, will see this year's production affected by the severe drought that hit China.

He added that the city's anti-drought efforts were hampered by the poor condition of local irrigation projects, which were damaged by floods in 1975 and not fully restored yet.

Since October 2008 to February this year, persistent dry weather has scorched most parts of north China, parching 161 million mu of cropland and leaving 4.37 million people and 2.1 million heads of livestock facing water shortages.

Some small water conservancy projects are unable to function well as newly built large reservoirs on the upper reaches of major rivers such as the Yellow River and the Yangtze River have reduced water levels downstream.

Wang Xiaodong, a Ministry of Water Resources official, earlier this month said only 867 million mu out of China's 1.83 billion mu of arable land has access to irrigation.

Wang said 610 million mu of irrigated fields benefit from a total of 40,000 small- and medium-sized irrigation networks. However, less than 40 percent of the networks' facilities are in good condition.

To tackle the irrigation concern, China's State Council, or Cabinet, issued last week a decree on drought relief. Governments above the county level are responsible for maintaining irrigation facilities.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said in a government work report last week more funds will be allocated to public works in mid-western rural areas and local governments at or below the country level are not required to share the cost.

China produced 528.5 million tonnes of grain last year and it is planning to produce about 500 million tonnes this year for its own consumption.