About 700,000 people and 207,000 head of livestock are suffering
drinking water shortages in northeast China's Liaoning Province.
Sources with the flood prevention and drought relief
headquarters said more than one million hectares of farmland in
Liaoning have also been affected by drought over the past year.
The province has experienced its warmest winter in 56 years with
the average temperature from December to February up 3.4 degrees
Celsius from the average, according to Liaoning Provincial
Meteorological Bureau.
Rainfall, however, was down at least 30 percent and ground water
levels in the more arid western areas dropped by 12 to 35
centimeters from last year, according to the bureau.
Although a major snowstorm at the beginning of March has
provided six billion cubic meters of water, the situation was only
slightly improved.
Ten days after the storm, warm temperatures and spring winds
have dried the moisture in the soil, sources with the relief
headquarters said.
In counties like Chaoyang in northwestern Liaoning, many wells
have dried up, forcing farmers have to deepen them or to carry
water from nearby reservoirs.
Local drought relief authorities are building water pools to
capture rainfall, and digging wells around reservoirs for local
residents.
The provincial drought relief headquarters said plans to
artificially generate more than three billion cubic meters of rain
this year.
(Xinhua News Agency March 20, 2007)