More than 400 engineers and workers are digging wells in southwest China's Guizhou Province to seek drinking water for people and livestock amid a prolonged drought, local authority said Thursday.

Workers started to drill early this month and seven wells had been completed as of Monday, producing more than 6,000 tonnes of water a day for more than 40,000 people, said He Yumin, publicity officer with the Guizhou provincial geological and mining bureau.

He said 154 more wells would be excavated to provide drinking water for about 300,000 people in the regions worst hit by the drought.

According to the bureau, Guizhou has 13.9 billion cubic meters of underground water and only 18 percent has been explored for use.

The province issued a drought alert Thursday, warning the dry period that started in July last year had seriously affected living conditions and calling for further anti-drought efforts.

The disaster has cut irrigation for 830,000 hectares of cropland, including 28,947 hectares that are seriously affected. Almost 10.4 million people and 4.26 million head of livestock are suffering water shortages, according to the flood control and drought relief headquarters of Guizhou.

Average precipitation in the province since December last year was 47.7 mm, only half of that in the same period the previous year. Water inflow in some major rivers dropped by up to 90 percent and water reserves in all reservoirs in the province dropped by about 32 percent.

The provincial civil affairs administration has allocated 76 million yuan (US$11.1 million) in disaster relief and more than 2.66 million people have been working to alleviate the effects of the drought.

Yunnan Province, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and other regions in southwest China had also been suffering prolonged drought.

(Xinhua News Agency March 19, 2010)