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Climate Witness: Gung Qiu Lai Jia, China
Gung Qiu Lai Jia is a 58 year old yak herder in Yushu County in west China's Qinghai province. The change in rainfall patterns and the decline of permanent snow on surrounding mountains are starting to affect their freshwater supply. They continually travel further from their home to collect water.
I'm 58 years old. I’m married and have five children. Two of my daughters have married, and a daughter and son now live at the local monastery. Only my youngest son lives with my wife and me. The 100-plus yaks are the primary source of my family's income.
Water source is disappearing
Some 20 years ago when I first moved here, the rivulet in front of my house was about a foot deep. There're a couple of springs upstream, which used to flow water all through the year. In rainy season, the water would rise in the rivulet. It provided all the water for both local residents and yaks.
However, in recent years, the water level has been decreasing in the stream. It used to take minutes for my wife to carry water from the rivulet, now she had to go farther upstream to fetch water. And the springs upstream have long stopped flowing. If there's no rain for a long period, as it happens more and more often these days, the rivulet will dry up.
Changing rainfall patterns
The rainfall pattern has also changed in recent years. It used to rain continuously in the wet season each June. The drizzle would go on for more than a month and swell the rivulet. Now, such rainfall has disappeared; instead there often come sudden showers, which cannot replenish the stream and will only make the water muddy and undrinkable.
As a result, now we have to store rainwater in summertime so that we can have something to drink in the dry season. In the winter, we have to fetch ice from the lake and melt it at home for water.
I'm now in my 50s, but my children are all quite young. If things go on like this, our rivulet will completely dry up in a few years. And even the nearest water source is a couple of kilometers away. I'm worried about the future of my children. I don't know how they can survive it.
Scientific review
Reviewed by: Prof. Ren Guoyu, National Climate Center (NCC), China Meteorological Administration (CMA)Research indicates that temperatures have been on the increase across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The period from 1951 to 2004 has seen the region's annual mean surface air temperature increase at a pace of 0.17 degrees C per decade, with all its 7 warmest years occurring after 1980s. During that period, the local annual rainfall has also shown signs of increasing, although the summer rainfall has declined in the central and northern parts of the plateau.
In Longbao Town, Yushu County, on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, local herders have observed the disappearance of permanent snow on mountaintops as well as the drying up of some springs. Also the drizzles formerly typical of local summers have been replaced by sudden showers, which have led to a marked decline in the water level of local mountain streams.
With the same amount of rainfall, sudden showers provide far less water to underground streams than drizzles. That, combined with the disappearance of permanent snow on nearby mountains, has resulted in diminished water level in both surface streams and underground water bodies, which explains the dried up springs.
Under the current scenario of greenhouse gas emissions, multiple climate models indicate that the temperatures in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau will have climbed by 3.0 degrees C, with further increased local rainfall. The growth in actual vaporization caused by increased temperatures may at least partially set off the increase in rainfall. Therefore, the water shortage at the height of summer is likely to continue in Longbao Town and other locations plagued by decreased snow melt. Moreover, the deterioration of permafrost will also take its toll on the eco-system of the plateau's grasslands.
It is of vital importance to help local herds people adapt to the above impacts of climate change through adjusting their daily life and works.
All articles are subject to scientific review by a member of the Climate Witness Science Advisory Panel.