Times are tough in China’s Sichuan province. The landlocked
province in southwestern China is in the midst of an extreme heat wave and
resulting drought conditions ranging from severe to extreme. Extreme drought
conditions are characterized by major crop losses and widespread water
shortages. On top of these desperate conditions, Sichuan was wracked by a magnitude 6.6 earthquake on Monday, leaving at
least 74 dead and 26 missing. The mounting humanitarian crisis in Sichuan does
not only impact the local residents. While the Sichuanese are suffering acutely
from these compound crises, the dire conditions are set to send ripple effects
throughout China and the rest of the world. As a result of the drought (and
now the earthquake), Sichuan is not only experiencing loss of crops, it’s also
experiencing extreme energy scarcity. The province sources about three-quarters
of its electricity from hydropower, which is now greatly reduced as the
region’s reservoirs and rivers are drying up. Sichuan water levels are currently at half their normal amount
thanks to a punishingly hot summer. Consequently, Sichuanese residents' “power
suddenly became scarce for big users in August,” according to a report from Nikkei Asia.
Those
“big users” include Toyota Motor, Apple assembler Foxconn Technology Group,
among a longer list of major companies that had to shutter their factories in
Sichuan and Chongqing for over a week – and that’s before the earthquake hit.
As a result, calls are growing louder for China to build more coal-fired plants
in Sichuan to shore up energy security. What’s more, the shortage of hydropower
in China has sent coal prices through the roof around the world. “China's
tightening coal supply has started to spill over into higher prices
internationally because the country accounts for more than half of global
consumption,” Reuters reported this week.