Drought affects six Chinese provinces

Published: Jan. 7, 2009 at 12:09 PM

TAIYUAN, China, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Six northern and eastern Chinese provinces are suffering through prolonged droughts that have affected water supplies, officials say.

Nearly 1 million people, 160,000 head of livestock and agricultural crops are being affected in Shanxi, the worst-hit province, Xinhua, the state-run Chinese news agency, reported Wednesday.

Providing drinking water to the affected areas has been difficult, with officials saying no rain has fallen in Shanxi since October. The drought has affected 1.2 million acres of wheat, with 345,000 acres severely affected.

The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture told Xinhua Tuesday the six provinces -- which also include Shandong, Henan, Hebei, Anhui and Gansu -- in total had 13.4 million acres of drought-affected cropland, nearly five times more than the area hit by droughts last year.

© 2009 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Order reprints



Additional News Stories
New terms reached in Google book suit (13 min)
4 jailed in online bank customer scam (16 min)
Climate change killing sea turtles (24 min)
Shrimpers, processors do battle (25 min)
Woods in tie for Australian Masters lead
Bourdy alone at top at Hong Kong Open
MLS: Los Angeles 2, Houston 0 (OT)
fark
"I saw UFO beam up a buffalo"
69-year-old goes online, finds an actual 13-year-old girl... who then gives her login info to the...
The attention whore of Europe would like you to move in instead of just coming and going without...
"You see an advertisement saying 'try it for free' for very little money, but soon after, you get...
Cops who found magic mushroom grow house give up on counting them all, say it would be easier if...
Dramatic exposé on the "Golden Girls", how one show turned a generation of boys into homosexuals;...