Millions in northeast province face losing supplies from Songhua River, environmentalists warn

Parts of the Songhua River in Heilongjiang are running dry and environmentalists warn that the river might follow in the path of the Yellow River and lose its ability to supply water to millions in the northeast province.

The China Youth Daily yesterday reported that since mid-June, the Songhua River had run dry in Zhaoyuan county near Harbin. The report said the riverbed in Zhaoyuan, which used to be a busy river port, was now exposed and horse-drawn carts could cross the river easily.

Water levels have also dropped sharply near the provincial capital, Harbin. Last week, the river depth there fell to an historic low.

The Yellow River, nicknamed China's 'mother river', began to run dry in the mid-1990s, although the situation has improved slightly in the past two years.

Other rivers such as the Huai River, which flows through Henan, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces, and the Liao River, in Liaoning, are facing the same fate.

Professor Wang Xinde, of the Heilongjiang Water Conservancy Institute, was quoted as saying the exhaustion of the Songhua River could be 'disastrous', adding that the estimated underground water resources in the river's drainage basin was only about 11.6 billion cubic metres a year - far from enough to meet the needs of the region's 40 million residents.

Confronted with a prolonged drought in northeast and central China this summer, environmentalists are warning the mainland faces a serious water crisis if consumption is not restrained and environmental protection not stepped up.