Drought Affects 250,000 in Northern China
February 25, 2008
Around 250,000 Chinese citizens face drinking water shortages in the northern Hebei Province, which neighbors Beijing, government officials said Monday.
The water shortages come as a severe winter drought, which affected 3.3 million hectares of crops, lingered, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The number of people affected could double next month, said the provincial water conservancy department.
The usable water in provincial reservoirs is less than one third of capacity and some reservoirs have gone dry, the department said.
The local government has set aside $265.7 million to fight the effects of drought since 2007, and has built 220,000 drought-relief projects.