More than 660,000 hectares of crops have been affected and
90,000 people are suffering from drinking water shortages as a
prolonged drought refuses to loosen its grip on north China's Hebei
Province, the provincial department of water resources said on
Tuesday.
Zhangjiakou city, in northwest Hebei, is the worst hit. More
than 200,000 hectares of cropland have been made affected and 32
small reservoirs have dried up.
According to the provincial meteorological bureau, rainfall in
Hebei in August was 39 percent less than the normal level.
A lack of rain has prompted the spread of drought in the
province, where drought-hit areas increased by 1.4 percent every
ten years.
Guo Yingchun, senior engineer with the Hebei meteorological
bureau, cited global warming as one cause of the drought, adding
that they were trying to ascertain other causes.
The local governments has made artificial rain to relieve the
drought and ordered the digging of wells and transfer of water to
people in the drought-plagued areas.
(Xinhua News Agency September 12, 2007)