▲ Drought
"We are grateful that they are supplying at least this much water, but if it doesn't rain, we don't have much time left to hold on," said Kim, a 74-year-old head of Deokdong village in Daesa-ri, Hanam-eup, Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province, looking at his drought-parched farmland on the 13th, the second day of emergency water supply support launched under a national firefighting mobilization order.
At the drought site that day, hoses from fire water tanker trucks spewed powerful jets of water, supplying water to each parched piece of farmland.
Kim shared his inner thoughts, saying that while a sense of relief came first with the firefighters' water supply support starting the previous day, realistic worries are mounting due to the worsening drought.
"I am truly grateful that firefighters came from afar despite the hot weather, but this amount is not enough to relieve the drought," he said. "We are waiting as desperately for rain as we would for our grandchildren coming from Suwon and Ulsan."
Just as Kim worries, the recent drought in the South Gyeongsang region is severe enough that all 18 cities and counties have entered agricultural water drought zones.
The number of areas included in the 'severe' level, the highest drought stage, increased to a total of five on the 13th, with Uiryeong and Changnyeong added to the existing Miryang, Geoje, and Haman.
The agricultural water drought stages are divided into four levels: Attention (reservoir water level of 70% or below compared to the 30-year average, weak drought), Caution (60% or below, moderate drought), Alert (50% or below, severe drought), and Severe (40% or below, extreme drought).
On this day, the average reservoir water level across the 18 cities and counties in South Gyeongsang stood at 32.8%, dropping to 46.3% compared to the normal average of 70.8%.
In fact, most of the farmland receiving water supply that day had severely cracked soil and rice plants turning yellow, waiting only for rain to fall.
Farmers appeal that they can no longer hold out unless rain falls as a fundamental solution.
Nam, a 66-year-old sweet persimmon farmer in Changnyeong, has practically given up farming on about 1,200 pyeong out of his 6,000 pyeong orchard due to the extreme drought.
Places with a tube well where irrigation is possible are somewhat better off, but places like Nam's have no choice but to watch the trees wither and die.
Nam was doing tube well work to pump up groundwater that day, but the groundwater was depleted, causing the machine motor to spin idly and even break the equipment.
"Like humans, trees have a golden time; once it passes, no matter how much water you pour, the leaves dry up and nutrients cannot be delivered, making it useless," Nam complained. "If the trees die, farming itself is over, and for orchards like ours, at the longest, next week is the golden time."
Kang, a 68-year-old rice farmer in Geoje, also appealed, "Now is the time when rice ears begin to emerge, so it's the period when water is needed the most, but due to the severe drought, the leaves are drying up and burning. If enough rain does not fall by the end of this month, we won't be able to harvest more than half, making the situation extremely urgent."
The South Gyeongsang provincial government believes that about 200 mm of rain must fall in the near future to resolve the agricultural water shortage caused by this drought.
Although rain is forecasted for today (the 14th), it is expected to be around the level of a shower, so it is unlikely to be of great help in relieving the drought.
However, rain is forecasted to fall all day starting from the morning on the 16th in the South Gyeongsang, Busan, and Ulsan regions, which is expected to serve as a turning point to resolve this drought.
An official from the Busan Regional Meteorological Administration said, "Rain of around 5 to 40 mm is forecasted for Busan, Ulsan, and South Gyeongsang including on the 14th," adding, "Rain is forecasted from early in the day on the 16th, and precipitation is expected to be higher than on the 14th."
Previously, at the request of the South Gyeongsang Fire Headquarters, the National Fire Agency issued a national firefighting mobilization order, deploying 200 fire water tanker trucks nationwide to South Gyeongsang on the 12th to provide water supply support, supplying 4,769.3 tons (653 times) of water over the course of a day.
On the 13th, the second day of water supply support, a similar level of water to the previous day is being supplied across various parts of the South Gyeongsang region, but it remains insufficient to alleviate the drought.
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