The family of six days that share a single cup of water to wash, the same , because this or nothing. Soldiers lined up to pour water bowls plastic, of plants from the green earth that seems so pale. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao with the hose in hand, reduced to a smiling face, which proclaims: authorities of the areas affected by drought to consider the number one priority. Scenes of national emergency, scenes from a country that is coping with the economic crisis and must now pronteggiare also a natural disaster.
China thirsts. Eight provinces in the northern half of the crop is at risk of cereal, the government admits that some 4 and a half million people almost do not have potable water, over 2 million heads of Cattle distressed. In Henan it does not rain for more than 100 days. Ever so by 1951. In some counties the rains were between 50 and 80 percent less than the average, l’Hebei Daily reported the area of Cangzhou, where rainfall decreased by 91 percent from last winter. The Minister of Agriculture, Sun Zhengcai, has described the anguish 3-10 inches of dry scab covering the land.
Beijing has declared a national emergency and has been allocated a budget 10 billion for economic aid to farmers and almost 50 million to the provincial governments. Dallo Yangtze, the longest river in China, water will be diverted to alleviate the drought of Jiangsu, while the closed section of the Yellow River which flows in Inner Mongolia will be open to give breath to Henan and Shandong. In addition, the central government has also decided the use of the artificial rain where possible.
E’ the attitude of a country that, impetuous in its modernization, has continued to make his philosophy of Maoist’assault on nature. The same approach that inspired the construction of dams colossal. The devastating effects of drought, however, have opened a debate on the environmental costs of its own development model.
There are half a nature and global warming, But also has the human factor, Some experts blame. a researcher with the Ministry of Water Resources, Qiu Weiduo, spoke of errors.
The President has articulated Wen: we play the recovery of the internal market, our economy, is vital to increase grain production and purchasing power in rural. But in China it is the winter of discontent, and is a dry winter.
Of Corriere della Sera 9 February 09
