Normally filled with water in August, China's Poyang Lake is now exposing large portions of its cracked lakebed, drone footage taken on Sunday showed, testifying to the dramatic impact of a long drought and heat wave on a vital part of the country's irrigation infrastructure.

China's biggest freshwater lake, Poyang, is known as the “kidney” because of the role it plays in regulating the flow of the Yangtze river in central Jiangxi province, taking on floodwaters in the normally wet summer and then receding dramatically during the dry autumn and winter. This year, as a record heat wave throughout the Yangtze basin stretches beyond 70 days, the lake has shrunk far earlier than usual and is just a fifth of its size from a few months ago.

Villagers and tourists were able to walk comfortably on the cracked and baked flats of the lake, treading through dead mussels and fish.

The shrinkage has also affected shipping and drinking water supplies for nearby communities. Authorities have already released water from the Three Gorges and Danjiangkou reservoirs to alleviate downstream shortages, state broadcaster CCTV said on Aug. 23.

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