Beijing - An exceptionally dry winter has left the water level in stretches of China's longest river, the Yangtze, at the lowest on record, state media said on Thursday. The water level dropped to 13.98 metres at Hankou, in the central city of Wuhan, the lowest since records began in 1866, the official China Daily said.
A severe drought has affected many middle an upper reaches of the 6,300-kilometre river, stranding at least 40 ships this winter, the newspaper said.
The central government sent a team to investigate the impact of the drought on shipping and warned vessels plying the river to avoid shallow water.
"This year's dry season came a month earlier than usual and water levels fell sooner than expected," the newspaper quoted an unidentified water official as saying.
Low rainfall in the upper reaches of the river last year and the storage of a huge volume of water in the Yangtze Three Gorges reservoir last month were the main factors behind the drought, the official said.
But the Yangtze River Water Resource Commission denied that storage in the reservoir had contributed to the drought, the newspaper said.
