More than 1.56 million people and 415,000 heads of livestock are threatened with serious shortage of drinking water in central China's Hunan Province, as a result of a lingering drought.  

High temperatures have been hovering over the central and southern parts of Hunan since the end of June.

High evaporation has aggravated the drought, which has affected about 1,300 reservoirs. Many small ponds and streams have dried up. 

In some villages, wells have also dried up and villagers have to carry water from far away.

The drought has scorched over 1,000,000 hectares of farmland, and is expected to cause a serious reduction in the output of agricultural products, such as rice, cotton and oranges.

There will be no rainfall in most drought-stricken areas in the near future, meteorological sources say.

The provincial government has decided to allocate 10 million yuan (US$1.25 million) for drought relief work.

(Xinhua News Agency July 30, 2003)