Drought has led 8.36 million Chinese to suffer from temporary
drinking water shortages by Thursday as some southern areas were
suffering from floods, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief
Headquarters said on Friday.
The headquarters said the drought, which has mainly hit northern
China, has affected 122 million mu (8.1 million hectares) of crops
and left 7.32 million heads of livestock short of drinking
water.
The hardest-hit areas are the northeastern province of Liaoning and Heilongjiang and the northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The drought
in some of these regions is worsening with higher temperature and
less rainfall, according to the headquarters.
Statistics showed about 2.47 million people and 2.3 million
heads of livestock suffered from drinking water shortages in the
three regions.
In Xilin Gol and Alxa of Inner Mongolia, some domestic animals
are starving to death due to the lack of grass.
(Xinhua News Agency June 23, 2007)