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CHINA: May 28, 2007
BEIJING - Nearly 1 million people in China's western province of Gansu are short of drinking water as the area faces its worst drought in 60 years, the official Xinhua agency reported late on Thursday.
Another 760,000 residents in neighbouring Sichuan are also facing shortages, even though heavy rains in the southwest caused flash floods and landslides that killed 21 and forced 112,000 to evacuate their homes.
In parts of Gansu, after two months without any significant rainfall, crops are expected to fail or not be planted on nearly 200,000 hectares, Xinhua said. Water prices in the hardest-hit areas have soared as high as 110 yuan (US$14.38) per cubic metre.
In Sichuan, which last year suffered its most severe drought in half a century, 72 counties have not had rain for at least 20 days, Zuo Xiong, deputy director of the Sichuan provincial meteorological station said.
Both Gansu and Sichuan are considering trying to make artificial rain to solve their problems, the report added.
China is exploring a series of massive water transfer projects to address supply problems in a country with per-capita water resources well below global averages.
A government report has also warned that global warming in the future is likely to make China vulnerable to more drought in its arid north and flooding in the south. (US$1 = 7.651 Yuan)
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
