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Reuters
Reuters
Environment
By Thomas Peter and Xiaoyu Yin

Chinese drillers work 15-hour days building wells in drought-hit Jiangxi

Head of a drilling crew Gao Pucha watches as his drill hits water as the region experiences a drought outside Jiujiang city, Jiangxi province, China, August 27, 2022. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

(Refiles Aug 27 story with correct byline format, no changes to text)

JIUJIANG, China (Reuters) -Teams of drillers are working long hours to build wells to fight a devastating drought sweeping parts of China, farmers in Jiujiang city in the country's central Jiangxi province told Reuters on Saturday.

A drilling crew set up their machine to drill a well as the region experiences a drought outside Jiujiang city, Jiangxi province, China, August 27, 2022. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

"These villages, all of them, are particularly dry," said Gao Pucha, 42, who led one drilling team in Dashan village in Jiujiang.

"When we got the notice to drill wells, we got up early and worked late, more than 15 hours a day."

In another nearby village, a 72-year-old man surnamed Chen scoured the fields for ears of rice left over from the paddy harvester to take home and feed to his chickens.

Farmers pick ears of rice left over by a paddy harvester as the region experiences a drought outside Jiujiang city, Jiangxi province, China, August 27, 2022. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

"Sesame, corn, sweet potatoes, cotton in the drylands are all dried up," Chen told Reuters.

Chen added that only the rice fields could be filled with water from nearby reservoirs, "so they just filled them with a little bit of water and it was a little bit better."

China issued a national drought emergency earlier this month as record-high temperatures continued to scorch the regions along the Yangtze River. On Wednesday, Jiangxi province raised its drought emergency response to Level III from Level IV. Level I is the highest of the country's four-tier ranking system.

A farmer carries a sack of rice after harvest as the region experiences a drought outside Jiujiang city, Jiangxi province, China, August 27, 2022. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

Jiangxi province is one of China's 13 major grain-producing regions.

The heat has struck the agriculture sector hard and caused a patchwork of factory shutdowns across the country.

In July alone, high temperatures caused direct economic losses to China of 2.73 billion yuan ($400 million), affecting 5.5 million people and 457,500 acres of land, according to government data published on Thursday.

Harvested crops dry in a field as the region experiences a drought outside Jiujiang city, Jiangxi province, China, August 27, 2022. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

(Reporting by Thomas Peter and Xiaoyu Yin; Writing by Josh Horwitz; Editing by William Maclean)

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