In Qujing City, many villagers have to wait 48 hours before they can fetch a bucket of water at the few sources still in service.

Every day, 5-year-old Liao Mingbo joins the crowd, carrying 2.5 kg each time. "It's not heavy. I've been doing this for many months."

Liao's fellow villagers in Huize County must walk about two and a half hours to get to a river for water.

"For generations, we relied on rain for drinking water," said villager Wang Zhengyi. "But our water cellars dried up months ago. We're busy carrying river water every day to survive. Who cares about the crops?"

The drought has damaged at least 3 million hectares of cropland in Yunnan Province, according to figures released by the national flood prevention and drought relief headquarters in Beijing. Many peasants complain all their wheat, beans and vegetables have died.

The drought has cut the province's power generation capacity by 30 percent, as it largely relies on hydropower, and water flow in the Lancang River, Asia's third longest, was down by half compared with last year.

If the drought continues, almost a quarter of the local population will suffer drinking water shortages by May, said Zhou Yunlong, chief of water resources in Yunnan.

The province has a population of 45.5 million, according to the most recent census in 2008.

As the 18th World Water Day on Monday demonstrates, lack of water has become a global issue, with the United Nations estimating that by 2025, two-thirds of the planet's population will live with water shortages.

China in particular faces severe shortages in its goal for more sustainable economic and social development. Its per capita freshwater resources were only 2,200 cubic meters, about a quarter of the world average.

Of China's 600 cities, more than 400 suffer chronic water shortages, according to Ministry of Water Resources.

(Xinhua News Agency March 22, 2010)