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BEIJING, Aug. 29 (AP) As of Monday, more than 100,000 people had moved to safer areas, as heavy rains brought flooding risks to southwest China, which has been hit by heat waves and heatwaves for much of the summer. drought damage.
Heavy rain is expected in parts of Sichuan province and Chongqing city until at least Tuesday. Chongqing, a megacity built on a hilly terrain that also overlooks the surrounding mountains and countryside, issued flash flood warnings on both days.
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But China’s meteorological agency maintained the country’s second-highest drought orange warning as high temperatures persisted in many parts of southern China, the official Xinhua news agency said. It is recommended to strictly save water and use emergency water sources to supply people and animals.
The Sichuan Provincial Emergency Management Agency said on Monday that 119,000 people had been evacuated. A village under the jurisdiction of Guangyuan city recorded 18.8 centimeters (7.4 inches) of rain, state broadcaster China Central Television said. The city is one of the two most severely affected by drought in Sichuan.
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National Level IV flood emergency response, the lowest of the four-level system, is in effect in Sichuan, Chongqing, and neighboring Gansu and Shaanxi provinces to the north. The official Xinhua news agency said the hard, tanned soil left by the heatwave increased the risk of natural disasters when it rained.
Changes in weather have eased the hot weather, with factories in Sichuan returning to full power after two weeks of restrictions due to reduced hydropower output.
The rain should help farmers whose rice, Sichuan pepper and other crops withered in a prolonged drought that reduced community reservoirs to mostly cracked land.
With temperatures reaching as high as 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), meteorologists called it the strongest heatwave in China since records began in 1961.
CCTV said on its website that industrial and commercial electricity consumption in Sichuan “has fully recovered”. The demand for air conditioners in homes fell as temperatures dropped and rainfall began to replenish hydroelectric reservoirs.
According to NBC, hydropower production in the province is up 9.5 percent from its lows. The report quoted Zhao Hong, the marketing director of the Sichuan subsidiary of State Grid, as saying that household electricity consumption dropped 28 percent from a peak of 473 million kWh per day to 340 million kWh.
“The conflict between power supply and demand in Sichuan will basically be resolved within the next three days,” Zhao said.
The decline in hydropower production has prompted Sichuan utilities to ramp up the use of coal-fired power plants, temporarily hampering efforts to reduce carbon and other emissions.
According to Caixin, a Chinese business news magazine, the share of coal power generation in Sichuan has jumped from 10% to 25%, with 67 power stations operating at full capacity.
Often seen as a clean energy success story in China, Sichuan generates 80 percent of its electricity from hydropower. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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