The number of Chinese officially suffering drinking water shortages has more than doubled in less than a week after the government revised its statistics.

The State Flood and Drought Relief Headquarters on Friday released new figures showing 5.9 million people with drinking water shortages, more than double that figure of 2.43 million published on Feb. 24.

A headquarters spokesman would not elaborate on the revision, but said the situation was due to a lingering and severe winter drought.

From Feb. 23 to 28, the number of livestock without sufficient drinking water jumped from 1.89 million to 5.67 million, according to the headquarters.

To date, the drought has affected 15.8 million hectares of arable land, up 2.93 million hectares from the same period last year, the headquarters said.

In south and east China, freezing temperatures and heavy snow and sleet hit 11.8 million hectares, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

More than a fifth of China's arable land, which stood at 121.8 million hectares in mid-2006, has been affected either by winter weather or drought.

The northeastern Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces and eastern Inner Mongolia accounted for about 60 percent of the drought-hit area, said the headquarters.

Precipitation in north China was down by 70 percent this winter, the headquarters said, warning the drought could worsen as forecasts showed precipitation would remain low in most parts of east China.

(Xinhua News Agency March 1, 2008)