The tropical province of Hainan in southernmost China is suffering from drought and the situation is expected to worsen, experts said.

The drought has affected about 62,000 hectares of arable land, one eighth of the provincial total, according Yang Yunxian, head of the island's drought control office.

In drought-stricken areas, about 8,870 hectares of land were seriously affected, and crops on 770 hectares have withered. Over 17,000 people and 50,000 livestock have had difficulty in finding potable water, Yang said.

Hainan, a normally rainy island province, has had no rainfall for two consecutive months. Since mid November, most of the island has received less than ten millimeters of rain. The paltry amount is quickly evaporated by the tropical heat as the temperature in December rose notably.

In the most stricken area, Ledong County, the soil contains just 17 percent water.

"What concerns us is the drought is worsening. According to meteorological predictions, the rainfall will decrease early this year than the same period last year. If so, farmers will have insufficient water in planting early rice and fruit in February and March," Yang said.

"If the drought lasts one more month, the province will be seriously affected."

Since the 1990s, China has had frequent droughts -- one about every three years -- and they tend to linger.

Early last year, Hainan saw around 100 reservoirs and ponds dry up. Elsewhere, in the southwest, Sichuan Province and Chongqing, a municipality called the "city of rivers", were stricken by drought all last year, an unprecedented situation over the past century.

In the north, drought has persisted for 14 years, a duration rarely seen since 1949.

(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2008)