Misery and hunger stalk drought-hit grain basket of China

Yi Mudan sighs as her flock of sheep and goats push their way to the water troughs after a morning grazing on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. “We try to use our well water but there isn’t enough. We have to ask for tankers to come from the town to make sure the animals have enough.” The drought that brings a frown to the face of this elderly farmer is making itself felt far across China. Horses, cattle and sheep are already beginning to starve in some parts of Inner Mongolia’s grasslands. In central Sichuan province, China’s grain basket, millions of acres of crops have withered. Across the country, more than six million acres have been ruined — an area 21 per cent larger than in previous years. Water levels along the mighty Yangtze river, China’s longest river, have dropped dramatically, falling by more than ten metres in a matter of weeks. Where the river flows through the huge city of Chongqing, the water level is just 3.5 metres (11.5 feet) — its lowest in a century. Seventeen million people across southwest China no longer have access to clean drinking water as a result of the drought.