China showers 1.15 billion yuan on rainmaking project for parched northwest

China’s top economic planning agency has approved a 1.15 billion yuan (HK$1.3 billion) rainmaking project for the country’s dry northwestern provinces in one of the biggest government programmes to modify weather.

According to the National Development and Reform Commission, a feasibility study by the China Meteorological Administration found that rainfall and snow could be increased in an area of 960,000 sq km, 10 per cent of the country’s territory, if the proposed investments were made.

The NDRC approved the budget to buy four new planes, upgrade eight existing aircraft, develop 897 rocket launch devices and connect 1,856 devices to digital control systems. The whole project will take three years.

The usual practice of making rain is to use aircraft or rockets to “seed” clouds with catalysts such as dry ice to induce or increase rainfall to relieve drought.

But weather modification by firing chemicals into the clouds has become more frequent across the country in recent years for various purposes including improving weather for major public events to cooling hot air in summer. As smog becomes a problem for many cities, rainmaking has become a popular way to “clean up” the air.