Officials experimented with tentative discharges in December and formally started releases on Thursday. The downstream reaches of the Yangtze have suffered the lowest water levels since records began being kept in 1877, caused by scarce rainfall and a severe drought in the upper reaches last year, Xinhua news agency said. “Cases of boats being stranded by the shallow water have been reported frequently and difficulties in industrial, agricultural, household uses of water in the mid- and lower reaches of the Yangtze have arisen since November,” it said. … Read the full story.