Currently, the drought-affected area in south China's Hainan Province is expanding, with more than 120,000 people short of drinking water and 90,000 hectares of cropland unusable. Experts predict the drought will likely soon cover the whole province.

Rainfall has been down in the province for more than a year. Precipitation in 2006 was 1,518 mm, 15.7 percent less than the normal average, according to sources with the provincial office for combating flood, hurricane, and drought on Wednesday.

Sanya City, which draws thousands of tourists because of its beautiful beaches, has seen no rain for 91 days. In addition, scarce rainfall has caused 314 reservoirs and mountain ponds to dry up in the province. Water storage is running at only 38 percent of capacity, the office reported.

Drought also continues to afflict the southwestern province of Sichuan, despite some light rain on Tuesday, said sources with the province's office for disaster relief.

Severely parched Suining city only received 9 mm of rainwater Tuesday, too little to help the cracked paddy fields and withered, yellow seedlings.

Official statistics show that 1.12 million people and 1.47 million livestock are short of drinking water, and crops have withered on about 130,650 hectares in Sichuan Province. The figure will grow if the drought continues.

In Sichuan's neighboring Chongqing Municipality, drought has left 1.5 million people and over 1 million livestock short of drinking water, and affected 134,700 hectares of farmland.

The municipality reported rainfall of 875 mm in 2006. Last August witnessed a record 90-percent decrease in precipitation compared with August 2005.

If dry weather lasts until the rainy season in the middle of April, 6 million people may find themselves without water, according to the municipality's meteorological bureau.

Measures have been taken to alleviate the drought in the worst hit regions.

Sichuan authorities will sink 20,000 wells to provide potable water for 70,000 people and convert paddy fields into drought-resistant cropland.

Chongqing is diverting water from reservoirs on the Jialing River, a major tributary of the upper Yangtze, to increase water supply.

Northern China last week experienced the worst March snowstorm in 56 years, but has at least seen one positive outcome in the alleviation of its spring drought.

The snowstorm provided 6 billion cubic meters of water to northeastern Liaoning Province, said sources with Liaoning Provincial Meteorological Bureau.

(Xinhua News Agency March 8, 2007)