Parts of China hit by severe draught

Dry lips, dry throats and dry land.

Severe drought has hit parts of China, and areas such as Shaanxi, Henan, Anhui and Xinjiang are badly affected, Xinhua reported.

Particularly affected is Nanchong City in south-west Sichuan province, where nearly 230,000 people face a severe water shortage, local officials said last week.

Nanchong has seen a sharp drop in rainfall this year with 19 townships in worst-hit Nanbu County experiencing severe drought, local authorities said.

It has also been very hot, with the temperature going up to 39 deg C in parts of the Sichuan Basin and 40 deg C in Chongqing Municipality.

More than 200,000 livestock animals are also facing drinking-water shortages in the drought-plagued region, Xinhua reported.

The droughts in China have affected more than 36,860 ha of farmland, with about one-tenth confirmed to have no harvest this year.

"We have to give up on the crops. The more we invest, the more we could lose," said a farmer in Xinjiang's Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County.

Relief

To alleviate the situation, local governments have sent disaster-relief supplies and laid pipelines to send water to the drought-hit regions.

Some villagers are not planting as they estimate that their crops could never cover the costs of irrigation, said an official in Henan.

The Ministry of Agriculture has sent 11 teams of experts to drought-hit areas to encourage best practices in disaster relief.

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