About 187,000 people in Guizhou Province are short of drinking water amid an ongoing dry spell, according to provincial drought relief authorities on Thursday.

Since July 1, most parts of the province received an average rainfall that was less than half of that recorded during the same period in previous years, according to figures released by the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters.

Nine cities or counties began to show signs of drought with no significant rainfall since July 1.

About 187,000 people and 75,000 heads of large livestock suffer from a drinking water shortage. A total of 109,000 hectares of farmland has begun to wither, said the headquarters.

The headquarters has mobilized 120,000 people and spent 18.86 million yuan (2.92 million U.S. dollars) to alleviate the drought as of July 20.

The local meteorological center forecast that except for northern Guizhou, which will see normal rainfall, other areas will continue to have less rainfall in late July than in normal years.