About 700,000 people and 207,000 livestock are suffering
drinking water shortages in northeast China's Liaoning Province.
Sources with the flood prevention and drought relief
headquarters said more than one million hectares of farmland in
Liaoning had been affected by drought over the past year.
The province experienced its warmest winter in 56 years with the
average temperature from December to February up 3.4 degrees
Celsius, according to the Liaoning Provincial Meteorological
Bureau.
Rainfall, however, was down 30 percent and ground water levels
in the more arid western areas dropped by 12 to 35 centimeters from
last year, according to the bureau.
Although a major snowstorm at the beginning of March provided
six billion cubic meters of water, the situation only slightly
improved.
Ten days after the storm, warm temperatures and spring winds
have dried the moisture in the soil, sources with the relief
headquarters said.
In counties like Chaoyang in northwestern Liaoning, many wells
have dried up, forcing farmers to deepen them or to carry water
from nearby reservoirs.
Local drought relief authorities are building water pools to
capture rainfall, and digging wells around reservoirs for local
residents.
The provincial drought relief headquarters say they plan to
artificially generate more than three billion cubic meters of rain
this year.
(Xinhua News Agency March 19, 2007)