Within one month Jiangxi Province's Poyang Lake, the country's largest freshwater lake, was reduced to grassland only to be quickly refilled thanks to torrential rains.
The most extreme drought in a century along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River shrunk the surface area of the lake to only 632 square km, 24 percent its average size in recent years, by the end of May.
After more than one 100 days without rain, the drought-parched area finally saw continual downpours in the middle of June. The rain drove away the drought, but also brought flooding that destroyed thousands of people's homes.
Extreme drought had turned into deadly flooding within a month, while Poyang Lake returned to its former glory.
Nature sending signals
Young villagers living alongside Poyang Lake were not familiar with fighting drought. They only recalled the boundless surface of the lake and the raging storms of its flood seasons.
But after more than 100 days without rain, they got a rare chance to walk on the bottom of the mostly emptied Poyang, a phenomenon which had not happened for about 60 years.
Though the drought came suddenly, nature had been sending signals. The periods when its waters naturally recede have been coming earlier and earlier at Poyang Lake in the past eight years, the Xinmin Weekly said, quoting Dai Nianhua, a local expert who studies the lake.
The water quality of the lake has also deteriorated, Dai added.
Dai gave three reasons for the changes to lake. First is illegal sand collecting, which deepens the channels through which the lake water flows into rivers, speeding up the lake’s outflow.
Second is the water flowing into the lake is artificially controlled by dams on the rivers, which disrupts inflow.
The third is that although the forest coverage rate in Jiangxi Province has reached 63.1 percent, the quality of the forests is low and ineffective at storing water.
Water control project controversial
Drought fighting soon turned into flood control when the torrential rains came in June. Though the local villagers are no strangers to flooding, they were still surprised by the speed of the change.
The experience has boosted their desire to improve the Poyang Lake Water Control Project.
A 2.8-kilometer long dike across the lake has been prepared. People hoped it would raise the water level in the dry season and control water in the flood season.
But the dike has been criticized by many experts who believe it will result in the Poyang becoming a dead lake.
