Report: China's severe drought to continue

Southwest China's severe dry spell is set to continue, according to a report by the country's State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

Southwest China's severe dry spell is set to continue, according to a report by the country's State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

The headquarters dispatched experts to drought-hit regions to survey the severe weather conditions. They said the most serious problem was the shortage of drinking water. More than 20 million people and 12 million head of livestock are short of drinking water.

The report warned water stored at reservoirs in Yunnan Province will dry up completely if the drought continues until May. Guizhou Province and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region also face the same problem. Meanwhile, the drought has cut irrigation for croplands.

In Guizhou, more than 3 million people in rural areas are short of grain supply due to poor spring harvests. Nearly 90 percent of the China's drought-hit farmland is in Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Sichuan and Chongqing.