The worst drought in 50 years to hit provinces along the Yangtze River may continue to plague Central China.
Farmers kiss rice harvest goodbye
Hydropower running out of steam due to drought
Ships stranded due to low water levels are seen near the Zaozhuang section in east China's Shandong province, along the famous Beijing – Hangzhou Grand Canal on May 22, 2011.
Hanjiang, one of the Yangtze River branches, is being dried up due to a lasting drought. Jiangxi province has been suffering from a drought since spring, which is rare in its history.
Shishou launched a project on May 4, together with neighboring Huarong county, Hunan province, to ease water shortages by drawing supplies from the Yangtze River into the Huangrong River, which runs across the border of Hubei and Hunan provinces.
The No 32 underground turbine launched a water-filling test on Tuesday, starting the debugging of this unit. If the test goes well as planned, the turbine will be operating starting in May. Three of all six underground generators at the Three Gorges will be operational by this summer.