- Title: 'No food to eat': Chinese fishermen worry as biggest freshwater lake dries up
- Date: 20th December 2019
- Summary: JIUJIANG CITY, JIANGXI PROVINCE, CHINA (RECENT - DECEMBER 2019) (REUTERS) (MUTE) DRONE FOOTAGE OF RIVER THAT HAS DRIED UP VARIOUS DRONE FOOTAGE OF ANCIENT BRIDGE THAT RE-EMERGED BECAUSE OF DRIED-UP RIVER VARIOUS DRONE FOOTAGE OF BOAT THAT PREVIOUSLY SUNK IN RIVER JIUJIANG CITY, JIANGXI PROVINCE, CHINA (RECENT - DECEMBER 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF FISHERMEN DRAGGING SHRIMP NET ON THE DRY RIVERBANK VARIOUS OF FISHERMEN TAKING OUT AND SHAKING OFF DIRT FROM NETS MOTOR BIKE DRIVING ON THE DRY LAND VARIOUS OF DRY FISH ON THE DRY RIVERBANK DEAD DRY FISH ABANDONED BOAT ON THE RIVERBANK FISHERMEN PICKING UP ANCIENT COINS IN THE RIVER FISHERMAN, FAN XINDE, 36, PICKING UP ANCIENT COINS FROM THE RIVER ANCIENT COIN ON FAN'S HAND (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) FISHERMAN, FAN XINDE, 36, SAYING: "It's mainly because there are no other solutions. Otherwise who want to stand in the river and do this thing during wintertime? And there isn't much to pick up. In good days, I only get around 80 yuan." FISHERMEN CHECKING COINS HAND PICKING UP COIN FROM THE NET (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) FISHERMAN, FAN XINDE, 36, SAYING: "Yes, it (the river drying up) has been affecting the fish. When the water level is low, the fish cannot grow bigger as there's nothing for the fish to eat. The higher the water level the easier it is to feed the fish and the bigger and more expensive the fish will be. The small fish have low value, and we won't catch the small fish." FISHERMAN SHOWING THE COIN HE PICKED UP (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) FISHERMAN, FAN XINDE, 36, SAYING: "I'm young and I can work harder. But the government don't let us to do fishing, and there aren't any fish around too. So, we have to find a way out. However, actually it's impossible for us to get out now, because we have our boats, tools and children at home and we don't have skills and money to do other things." VARIOUS OF SAND MINE TRUCK WORKING AT THE SAND MINE DRONE SHOT OF VARIOUS OF FISHERMAN ZHA ZHENGNAN AND HIS DAUGHTER DRIVING A FISHING BOAT VARIOUS OF FISHERMAN ZHA ZHENGNAN AND HIS DAUGHTER DRIVING A FISHING BOAT ZHA'S DAUGHTER DRIVING (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) 79-YEAR-OLD FISHERMAN ZHA ZHENGNAN , SAYING: "We can fish for another year then we can't do it anymore from the following year, as fishing will be banned. What can we do during the fishing ban? Our lives will be difficult to maintain. I'm quite old, but what about those people who are at their 50 or 40? People who are at 40 can go out and be a worker. But how about those at 50 and 60? They'll have no food to eat." VARIOUS OF ZHA COLLECTING THE FISHING NETS AND FISH FISH BEING CAUGHT (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) FISHERMAN ZHA ZHENGNAN, 79-YEAR-OLD, SAYING: "The (environment) changed a lot because of the sand digging. The fishermen don't want them to do it but they still do it. Also the Jiujiang city wants to do it too." REPORTER ASKING: "What about the Three Gorges Dam? Does it affect you?" "Yes. Of course it impacts me. What can we do? It was built by the government. The Three Gorges Dam brings great disadvantage to us. There were rumours earlier saying that a dam was considered to be built at Poyang Lake. That can't be allowed. If it is built, everyone will have to quit fishing." REPORTER ASKING: What are the disadvantages? "If they build the dam there then the fish can't come up to here. There won't have any fish then." VARIOUS OF ZHA PICKING UP FISHING NET FISH ON TRAPPED ON THE NET ZHA SITTING ON THE NOSE OF THE BOAT CONSTRUCTION ON THE RIVER ZHA CARRYING FISHING NET WALKING VARIOUS OF FISHERMAN COLLECTING FISH FROM THE NET RED RIBBON HANGING ON THE TREE VARIOUS OF PEOPLE FROM THE FISHING VILLAGE PRAYING
- Embargoed: 3rd January 2020 00:33
- Keywords: China drone drought river
- Location: JIUJIANG CITY, JIANGXI PROVINCE, CHINA
- City: JIUJIANG CITY, JIANGXI PROVINCE, CHINA
- Country: China
- Topics: Environment,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA001BAS38ZR
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: In the middle of northeast of China's Jiangxi province sits a river that used to span 4,500 sq km that was brimming with fish. Now, it's merely a third of that size, and what's left of the river in large parts is the crackling bed.
Exacerbated by the recent drought, sunken boats and a bridge that dates back to the Ming dynasty are left drying out on the ground where Poyang river used to run through.
After wading through mudflats, Fan Xinde, a 36-year-old fisherman, sifts old copper coins from the debris scooped from the bed of the dwindling river that feeds China's biggest freshwater lake. As residents fled invading Japanese troops 80 years ago, the coins were packed into wooden boxes and sent down the river on rafts, and many sank without a trace. They are now being unearthed as the water in the Poyang recedes to its lowest level in decades.
Fan, who has worked half his life on the Poyang, near the middle reaches of the Yangtze river in the province of Jiangxi, said they sometimes collect as many as 20 coins a day, but the activity provided little more than pocket money.
On Jan. 1 2020, China will ban fishing in environmentally sensitive regions along the Yangtze, China's longest river, and by the start of 2021, fishing throughout the Poyang itself will be prohibited for at least 10 years. As many as 100,000 local residents who make a living from the Poyang will be ordered to abandon their boats and find new jobs. Many say they are being unfairly blamed for the lake's environmental problems.
The government claims excessive fishing has brought stocks down to perilously low levels and put endangered species under threat. It says it has also deprived China's last surviving river mammal, the critically endangered Yangtze finless porpoise, of a vital source of food.
But the Poyang, described by Chinese President Xi Jinping as a vital "kidney" filtering the water supplies of 40% of the country's population, has also been hurt by intensive sand mining, untreated wastewater and the impact of the giant Three Gorges Dam some 350 miles upstream along the Yangtze.
Residents blame the Three Gorges Project for the problems facing the lake, with the project's reservoir storing vast volumes of water behind a giant dam in order to guarantee power generation.
"Yes. Of course it impacts me. What can we do? It was built by the government. The Three Gorges Dam brings great disadvantage to us," said Zha Zhengnan who has been fishing for over 60 years around the lake.
According to government policy plans seen by Reuters, the government is already working to reduce mining activity in the Poyang after banning it in the Yangtze river two decades ago.
China is in the middle of a campaign aimed at ending big and "destructive" development along the Yangtze. President Xi said restoring the Poyang was a crucial element of the plan to revitalise the regions along the river's banks.
The lake's health will depend on how serious the Chinese government is about tackling decades of environmental degradation along the Yangtze river, but experts say many of the devastating changes are irreversible.
In a fishing village, fishermen and farmers feel their last resort lies with the gods. They are praying at a Buddhist temple, for more rain, fish, and a better bounty in the next year.
(Production: Thomas Suen, Yiming Woo) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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