Northeast China's Jilin Province, which has been plagued by severe drought for almost a month, allocated 20 million yuan (US$2.6 million) on Wednesday to reinforce water supplies.

The fund would be used to provide water to people, livestock and crops along with another subsidy of 1.6 million dollars allocated by the provincial government in early June, said governor Han Changfu.

Water supplies had resumed to more than 150,000 rural people and 210,000 heads of livestock, but at least 470,000 people and 400,000 heads of livestock were still short of drinking water in the countryside, said Han.

More than 12 cities were also suffering from water shortages.

In addition, up to 75 percent of all farmland in the province, about 2.9 million hectares, had been affected by the drought, while 19 reservoirs have dried up.

Local meteorological authorities forecast no rainfall in the near future.

The province has spent more than 350 million yuan (US$46 million) in disaster relief and dispatched more than two million people to combat the drought since early June.

The government planned to allocate more funds to purchase well-drilling equipment, the governor said.

In neighboring Liaoning Province, 2.05 million hectares, or 49 percent of the province's crops are affected by drought.

However, thundershowers and rainstorms are expected to fall in most of Liaoning by Thursday evening, offering temporary relief from the province's worst drought in 56 years.

In the northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, 870,000 people, 1.48 million heads of livestock and 460,000 square kilometers of pasture are suffering water shortages.

The number of Chinese without drinking water has risen by 320,000 this month to 8.68 million as drought tightens its grip on the country's northeastern regions.

The drought had affected 11.07 million hectares of arable land -- including 9.2 million hectares of crops -- and 7.6 million head of livestock, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said on Monday.
 
(Xinhua News Agency June 28, 2007)