Rice and other crops are at risk from the worsening drought situation in Guangdong, officials from the provincial drought relief authority said yesterday.

More than 173,000 hectares of crops have so far been affected by the dry weather, which has also left about 380,000 people short of drinking water, they said.

The cities of Shaoguan, Qingyuan and Meizhou in the mountainous northern and eastern regions of the province, plus Zhanjiang and Yufu in the west, have been the worst hit, the authorities said.

Zhuo Handong, an official with the drought and flood relief office, said: "These cities are the major hubs for growing crops in the province. Therefore it is a matter of urgency that we draw up effective measures to control the drought and ensure the crop harvest in the second half of this year."

Zhuo said there were currently more than 847,000 people helping combat the drought and some 118,000 sets of pumping equipment had been put into operation to direct water to the worst-hit areas.

"As more hot weather is forecast for next week, we will continue to fight to provide water for drinking and to feed crops," Zhuo said in an interview with China Daily.

According to the local weather bureau, the temperature in northern Guangdong reached nearly 38 C yesterday. And the heat wave is set to continue throughout the province next week.

Zhuo attributed the worsening drought to "continuous hot weather and insufficient water reserves in most reservoirs".

"The hot weather has meant a lot less rain since the early part of the year, while insufficient reserves have made it difficult to provide enough water to feed crops," he said.

As of the end of last month, the province's 30 largest reservoirs contained just 12.1 billion cu m of water, down 5.2 billion cu m on the same period last year.

"The relief work is getting harder as more areas are likely to become affected by the drought in the coming weeks," Zhuo said.

He called for more financial support for the relief work and also for irrigation facilities to be upgraded to improve their efficiency.

(China Daily August 3, 2007)