Beihai city in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has been hit by a severe drought with over 300,000 people facing drinking water shortages.

 

Reservoirs in Beihai have stored only 212 million cubic meters of water, down 40 percent from the 391 million cubic meters during the corresponding period last year, local authorities on water resources said on Wednesday.

 

The city has been suffering from low rainfall since the autumn of 2005, leading to a low underground water level.

 

Agriculture is also under threat as 19,300 hectares of farmland has also been affected by the drought.

 

Industrialization and migration to the Pearl River Delta region has developed a greenhouse effect, which has resulted in changes in precipitation that were first observed in 2003, meteorologists said.

 

The meteorologist predicted that Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Guangdong Province, both in south China, would face a more severe drought if El Nino comes into being this year.

 

(Xinhua News Agency February 23, 2006)