Northeast China's Liaoning Province is still suffering from the
worst summer drought in 56 years despite rain over the past two
days, the provincial flood control and drought relief office
said.
The average precipitation was only 13 mm on Wednesday and
Thursday and in the worst hit northwestern areas it was three to
four millimeters, officials with the office said.
The widespread precipitation brought slight relief, but had
failed to fill the dried-up rivers and reservoirs.
More than 1.7 million people and 760,000 heads of livestock are
still short of drinking water, and 183 reservoirs have dried
up.
The drought, the worst in Liaoning since records began in 1951,
has hit 2.15 million hectares of farmland, or 68 percent of the
province's total, according to the office.
Planes and rockets were used on Wednesday, right after rain
started to pelt the province, to seed clouds and produce 283
million tons of rain in more than eight hours to help relieve the
drought.
(Xinhua News Agency June 30, 2007)
