Hi,

is there still drought in Kunming? Do they still ration water? How is the water supply in apartments in the north?

yes. not really... at the moment you're unlikely to notice if they do. the water supply is fine so far (i live in the north).

@good morning, you should be fine,...for now....water-wise, at the moment there are no water shortages.

I'm getting tired of this drought BS.
There was no drought in Kunming (ever), as in most Monsoon influenced areas there is plenty of precipitation especially in the Summer months. So drought is not the right word but as many things in China it's all about how you name it.

The problem in Yunnan is not a drought but terrible water conservation and preservation plans, plus an incredible waste of water, leading to a lack of water.

So the drought is over becasue it was never there. And since it's raining plenty these days, the water presure is back to full power (proving the point of idiotic water plans and systems).

So until the rain stops the drought is over. :)

Kunming is the only city in the world that has a rain season drought....incredible isn't it?

yes, drought is still a huge problem. We still have our water cut off for half of every day at our restaurant. The reservoirs are still very low and we need at least two more rainy reasons like this one to get back to normal. I think most farmers in the province would disagree with any notion suggesting that the draught is anything but real.

Our neighbourhood is back to running water for 2 hours every day (after being as little as one hour twice a week a few months ago). We've been struggling for 6 months now.

i agree with colinfalhive. you might not see drought in kunming, however it's serious in some remote areas. i just hope government can really put more efforts in conserving water and reducing water waste.

Sorry to see people with a very limited experience write comments on this forum. Yes there is plenty of water in Yunnan but mostly in rivers that just passes through. The higher places that are dependent on rainfall, and Kunming is part of that, lack water. Indeed some of it is due to bad planning and wastage but in general there has not been enough water for Kunming but especially for farmers that are dependent on it. When I travelled through the province just before the rain season I was shocked about how dry the countryside was and how low, even dry, the reservoirs are. Even natural lakes have much lower levels and wetlands are drying out. Not only that but the damage caused by wild fires has been enormous.
However; and I think that was the question, the water supply in Kunming is largely back to normal and even when it was restricted it was still manageable for house hold use by filling up some buckets during the supply period. Mind you, I was glad that I was not running a restaurant or something like that during the restricted period.
To put things in perspective. The Kunming water use is about 100 litres/person/day. The bare minimum is 5 litres/person/day (UNHCR Guidelines)
Anyway hardly anybody drinks the water (Also that is quite posible) and one commenly has 18 litres drinking water supplied for a few kuai at home nearly 24/7.

I remember, not so many years ago, that Kunming airport suffered due to cracks in the runway. This was caused by the ground shrinkage caused by the drought.

We have not seen a change in water pressure or delivery times and are still down to a few hours in the evening where we have a little pressure. So, no change on that front.

But now we have a high-pressure pumping system (as have many other apartments in our compound), so now we have water all day, every day.

However, the pressure generated by the pump is so great (and cannot be varied) that we waste an enormous amount of water. We are showering under a pressure hose, same for doing the dishes. We have complained to our land-lady, who sent her plumber around again, who simply refuses to acknowledge the problem. He just suggested to always(!) have the tap running when we turn the pump on.

So, sadly, Kunming's solution to reduce water pressure in order to save water has resulted in the installation of a private pumping system (wasting power) and vastly increased water usage.

I assume similar measures have been taken by other compounds, leading to people believe that there is no water shortage, 'because the shortage is just cause by waste'. How true.

Hi everybody,
first I have to say that Kunming is not suffering from a drought. The definition of drought is....

"a prelonged period of abnormally low precipitation a shortage of water 'resulting from this'."

And as we all know it's raining for days and weeks sometimes and the rain season didn't even hit us fully yet.

Also if you really interested in this you can check out the precipitation charts online for Kunming and the region, with the last 5 years history an even a short term trend for the coming weeks etc. and you will see that the precipitation is similar to some areas in Colorado (40inches annually) which has a very similar geography.

In Colorado they don't seem to have a problem with water rationing. Also around Kunming there are a few Rivers, the water from those rivers could be used if pumped out of the rivers moderately.
Also the soil is a problem here as well but in other countries they found ways around the roblem as well...but maybe national pride prevents from using examples form other countries.

My point being is precipitation is not the main problem but the water saving, cleaning and keeping it in the local water cycle.

The drought has been made up so nobody would complain about the Kunming water recycling and water system.

I agree that Kunming has a water shortage but not due a drought but due to the way Kunming stores and manages water.
I totally agree, the resevoirs are empty the pipelines run on low pressure and no useful plans to fix the problems.

Farmers lack water but if the Chinese government would be a bit more innovative and open minded they would look into what the Romans did a few recent years back ...something like 2000years ago.
Tadaaaa....