More than 800,000 people are without drinking water in western Guangdong Province due to the continuing drought. Zhanjiang and Maoming cities have been hardest hit, and many domestic animals have died, according to local water conservation authorities yesterday.

"Zhanjiang's drinking water supplies will last less than a month unless effective measures are taken immediately to open more water resources," said an official from the provincial Bureau of Water Conservation.

Water reserves in Zhanjiang now stand at 474 million cubic meters, a reduction of 55.9 percent from more than 950 million cubic meters last year. Only 230 million cubic meters can be diverted or used for agricultural irrigation.

"The autumn harvest will also be affected in western Guangdong if the drought gets worse over the next few months," the official said.

Six of 21 medium-sized reservoirs and 362 of 598 small ones in Zhanjiang have now dried up, said the official, and water levels in its reservoirs are sinking 10 million cubic meters a day.

More than 500,000 soldiers, officials and residents have been sent to the frontline to fight the drought and over 20,000 water pumps are working night and day to provide water for residents.

The city government has so far spent more than 50 million yuan (US$6 million) in alleviating the drought since the end of last year, launching more than 100 rockets since November to seed clouds and produce rain.

There has been less than 600 millimeters of rain in Zhanjiang since September, 75 percent less than the previous year.

Xuwen County, administered by the Zhanjiang city government, has had no rainfall for 238 days.

Meanwhile, over 200 experts from home and abroad gathered yesterday in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province, to attend a three-day symposium on global arid climate change.

(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency May 24, 2005)