About 383,000 local people are being menaced by an acute drinking water shortage caused by scarce rainfall and ensuing drought since early this year in central Hubei Province, a source with provincial flood control and drought relief authority said Thursday.

According to the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters, serious dry spells have also affected 232,000 head of domestic animals.

Since the beginning of the year, the headquarters noted, rainfall in most parts of Hubei Province dropped by 40 to 60 percent than in the same period of normal years in history and the rainy season set in at least about 10 days later than normal years. Although a rainstorm pelted parts of Hubei Province from June 25 to 28, scorching sunny days have sustained in most parts of the province ever since.

Currently, dry spells have been spreading to 10 cities of Jingmen, Yichang, Shiyan, Xiangfan, Suizhou, HuanggGong, Enshi, Xiaogan, Jingzhou and Xianning, and 35 counties in the Shennongjia forested area, affecting more than 480,000 hectares of cropland.

The provincial meteorological station forecast that dry weather will continue in most parts of Hubei over the next few days. And the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters called on localities to get braced to combat grave dry spells and possible floods.

(Xinhua News Agency July 8, 2005)