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)