China wants to generate rain for water needs

hong-kong - China is going to use modern technology to generate rain over the Tibetan plateau, the largest freshwater supply in Asia. In this way, the country wants to gain 10 billion cubic meters of water per year extra, about 7 percent of water consumption in China.

In the mountains, tens of thousands of installations are installed in which fuel is burned, causing iodides to be expelled. They are blown upwards and connect with the clouds, creating rain and snow. It has to fall on an area of ​​1.6 million square kilometers, three times the size of Spain.

Tests with five hundred of the installations are promising, said one of the researchers against the newspaper South China Morning Post. The system was developed with space technology, because the installations have to function in thin air at a height of 5000 meters.

Although other countries are also experimenting with such systems, China is the first country to deploy it on such a large scale.

On the Tibetan plateau the main rivers of China, including the Yellow River, the Yangtze and the Mekong, originate.