A severe drought is taking a heavy toll in China's western, central and northeastern regions causing drinking water shortages for at least 18 million people and estimated economic losses of 11.74 billion yuan (US$1.24 billion) as of Thursday.

Approximately 10 million people in the southwestern Sichuan Province, 7.65 million in Sichuan's neighbor Chongqing Municipality and 600,000 in northeastern Liaoning Province don't have access to sufficient drinking water.

All the 21 cities in southwestern China's Sichuan Province except Panzhihua have been affected by the drought which has caused total economic losses of 8.87 billion yuan (US$1.11 billion), the provincial disaster relief office said Thursday.

Many villagers living in mountainous areas are walking two kilometers to get water while some towns have been using vehicles to transport water in to affected areas, the office said.

The drought has affected 2.07 million hectares of farmland and caused crop failure of 311,300 hectares. Agriculture businesses in Sichuan have suffered economic losses of 7.96 billion yuan (US$1 billion). The Sichuan meteorological bureau forecast that the drought would continue in the coming days.

In Sichuan's Dazhou City alone more than 5 million people have been affected and around two million in 20 counties under the city have encountered difficulties getting drinking water.

Dazhou suffered severe droughts in 2004 and 2005 which caused losses of over 10 billion yuan (US$1.25 billion). Since early July the drought has caused at least 1.3 billion yuan of economic loss,? the death of 11,000 farm animals and destroyed crops on 400,000 hectares of farmland around the city.

The worst-hit area is the southwestern Chongqing which has had no rain for more than 70 consecutive days and where two-thirds of its rivers have dried up, local drought-relief authorities said Thursday. They added that one person had died of heatstroke.

The mercury has been hovering above 35 degrees Celsius over the past month in Chongqing and the thermometer hit a record 42 degrees in the past week.

About 1.3 million hectares of crops in Chongqing have been affected with agricultural economic losses reaching 1.93 billion yuan (US$241 million), according to local authorities. The drought has resulted in 2.87 billion yuan (US$358.8 million) in economic losses in the municipality.

In Chongqing more than 7.65 million people in 40 counties have been running out of drinking water since the severe drought started in mid-May.

"The village well has dried up and even the dusty water at the bottom has been scooped up," said Gu Qixiu, a villager in Zhangguan town of Yubei District. "The townsfolk have been sending us water wagons and each family gets two buckets of water a day." Gu said the arid cropland was unlikely to yield a cent this year. "Even sweet potatoes refuse to grow in the arid land."

"This is the worst drought to hit Chongqing in 50 years," said He Lingyun, a disaster relief official with the municipal government. "Two-thirds of local rivers and lakes have dried up and more than 200 reservoirs are stagnant."

Local governments have mobilized 5.8 million people and allocated 140 million yuan (US$17.5 million) to help residents fight the drought by tapping ground water and improving conservation facilities. Water supplies for more than 3.6 million people and three million head of livestock have so far been solved thanks to the drought-relief efforts.

Other areas of China being affected by the drought are Liaoning, Hunan and Guizhou provinces and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region while water supplies for Shanghai and other cities in the eastern region are declining.

The hot weather and drought also strained power supplies in eastern and southern China. A blackout was enforced in the eastern city of Hangzhou to protect its power transmission grid after temperatures topped 38 degrees Celsius.

Power use in the country has soared in recent summers as private homes, shopping malls and hotels with newly acquired air conditioning use up increased amounts of electricity.??

(Xinhua News Agency August 18, 2006)