Drought has left 4.28 million people in China suffering from drinking water shortage, the country's drought relief authority said Monday.

A farmer carries corns afflicted by drought in Bangxiang Village of Sansui County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Aug. 1, 2011. [Xinhua]

Hot temperatures and lack of rainfall that have persisted since July have resulted in drought in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and the provinces of Gansu, Guizhou and Hunan, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said in a statement on its website.

As of July 31, a total of 63.34 million mu (4.22 million hectares) of arable land had been affected by the drought, the statement said. Some 3.88 million heads of livestock suffered from water shortage, it added.

The drought, which started in June, has damaged 550,200 hectares of crops in Guizhou Province accroding to the provincial civil affairs bureau.

The direct economic loss amounted to 1.82 billion yuan (US$ 283 million).

By Monday, 39 counties and regions in Guizhou were suffering from severe drought, said Yu Junwei, spokesman for the Guizhou provincial meteorological bureau.

Yu said his bureau had launched a level-3 emergency response and further details about drought will be released on Tuesday.

Qiu Feng, spokesman for the provincial drought relief headquarters, said the drought in Guizhou arrived a month earlier than in normal years.

"By the end of July, the rainfall was only around 30 percent of the average rate year-on-year," he said. "It's still hard to predict how soon the drought crisis will ease."

Thunderstorms were forecast for most of the province in the coming week, which is likely to help ease the lingering drought, the provincial meteorological center said.