A villager carrying water in two buckets walks home while others wait for their share at a water distribution center in Huocun Village of Zizhong County, southwest China's Sichuan Province?June 5.

Continuous drought has greatly affected people's daily life and agricultural production in 46 counties of the province, threatening drinking water supply for 3.98 million people and 116,000 livestock. Relief work is underway in these areas.

Villager Yao Shichuan, squatting atop a crackled fish pond, shows the shells of mussel dying from dehydration in Wusi Village of Zizhong County.

(Xinhua News Agency, China.org.cn June 7, 2007)