A child waits for water in a small village named Xiaoyangchang in southwest China's Yunnan Province on March 12, 2010. Yunnan is one of the five regions worst hit by drought in China. [cnsphoto]

A drought that began in autumn last year, had affected 6.45-million hectares of farmland in China as of March 16.

Eighty-three percent of the drought-affected farmland is scattered in southwest China's five regions, namely Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces as well as Chongqing Municipality.

Currently more than 20-million people are faced with a serious drinking water shortage. Wan Qunzhi, the vice director of anti-drought office at China's State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, made the claims in an interview with China Radio International. He said most of those affected are living in the five regions worst hit by the drought.

The drought has severely affected people's lives, agriculture and industrial production in those regions. Citing Guangxi as an example, the region that used to abound in rain has seen rare rainfall since mid-September last year. The precipitation during the past six months accounts for only half or even less of the average rainfall in recent years.

Up to now, 12 cities in Guangxi are affected by the drought, in which 1.8 million people are faced with a serious drinking water shortage, with more than 0.5 million hectares of farmland affected by the drought.

Taking advice from agriculturists, farmers there have begun to plant other crops, such as pepper, instead of rice, which requires large amounts of water during the cultivation process, in order to retrieve economic losses as best they can.

In Zhaotong, a city of southwest China's Yunnan province put 16 newly-purchased fire engines into the fight against the continuous drought on Tuesday.

Yin Laoshu, the head of Zhaotong's municipal fire brigade promised to offer 24-hour service of those fire engines in efforts to help residents curb the drinking water shortage.

According to the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, in addition to the drought in southwest China, people living in some regions of northern China are also facing drinking water shortages. Around 155-million yuan has been invested in the fight against widespread drought.