A serious drought has spread wider in east China's Jiangxi Province, causing huge economic losses and damaging vast areas of crops, according to the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters on Thursday.

A source with the headquarters noted that the drought has affected over 430,000 hectares of cropland in the central-southern part of the province and another 260,000 hectares of crops are threatened by shortage of water.

The sustained dry spells has also affected the daily life of more than seven million people and, as a result of the drought, 727,000 local residents and 445,000 head of livestock have had problems in getting drinking water. The drought has caused an economic loss of over 900 million yuan (approximately US$109 billion) for the province.

Influenced by the subtropical high pressure, the rainfall in the province since early July was only 26 percent of the average amount during the same period in normal years. Twelve cities and counties reported no rain for 20 straight days and six cities saw an 80 percent to 90 percent decline in rainfall.

Meanwhile, high temperatures aggravated evaporation in the province, according to the provincial meteorological station.

From July 14-16, 53 cities and counties reported temperatures higher than 40 degrees Celsius, with the highest temperature of up to 41.5 degrees Celsius registered in Lichuan county. More than 20 cities and counties' temperatures hit records.

This was the first time that Jiangxi Province had reported such high temperatures for three consecutive days, according to the meteorological station.

Scarce rainfall, high temperatures and evaporation have led to a sharp drop of the water levels in local rivers and reservoirs. About 150 reservoirs dried up, over 800 wells cannot pump out water and certain sections of some rivers almost dried up.

To date, Jiangxi has mobilized more than three million people to participate in the battles against the drought. And some 50 million yuan (US$6.05 million) has been used in the drought relief drive.

Jiangxi Province has taken a series of measures to reduce the impact of the drought. And it has suspended car-washing and construction of infrastructure projects as part of an effort to reduce water consumption and to guarantee water supply for the daily lives of drought-affected people.

(Xinhua News Agency July 24, 2003)