An exclusive power supply line was set up within seven hours to ensure the water pumps could continue to water the withering crops following a prolonged drought in Dongyuan Village in Zhangjiajie City in central China's Hunan Province.

China is experiencing the strongest heatwave since 1961 with temperature records broken in at least 900 weather stations across the country, mainly in southern China. The sizzling temperatures subsequently caused a severe drought which is killing the crops in farmland. Dongyuan Village is one of the influenced places.

Zhang Jun, a local farmer, transferred 80 hectares of land this year. The crops he planted, such as rice, cotton and soybeans, have already been severely affected by the ongoing drought. Cracks appeared in the fields and leaves begun to turn yellow. As the rivers that used to irrigate the land now dried up, pumping water from further away became his last ray of hope. But the lack of power in his land becomes a question.

Fortunately, his calling was answered. The Dongyueguan power supply station of the State Grid deployed special teams to villages like Zhang's to help complete an extension supply of electricity to support the water pumps. So far, the station has dispatched more than 1,000 personnel and over 500 vehicles in the drought-relief project. About 11 kilometers of low-voltage lines have been completed so far.

"I had no expectation of a harvest at all under this unprecedented drought." said Zhang,"Then the power supply was built in my field, enabling water diversion, so there is hope again and a bumper harvest is in sight."

So far, drought has affected 2.46 million people and around 2.2 million hectares of farmland in the Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi and Anhui Provinces and the Chongqing Municipality.

As of Sunday, reservoirs of the Yangtze River have discharged 980 million cubic meters of water into the lower reaches to help fight the worst of the country's drought.

(All photos are provided by Tang Huigang and He Hui from State Grid Zhangjiajie branch.)

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