ONE MILLION CHINESE LACK DRINKING WATER IN DROUGHT

AP - BEIJING (AP) — Nearly one million people lack drinking water in a southern Chinese province that is suffering its worst water shortage in more than 50 years due to insufficient rain, state media said Monday.

 

Water levels in rivers and lakes have fallen by half from last year in poor, mountainous Guangxi, where nearly all county-level cities are facing their most severe water shortage since 1951, the People's Daily newspaper reported.

 

The situation is particularly serious in nearly half of the province's towns, said the newspaper, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party.

 

Rainfall in Guangxi, which is next to the booming province of Guangdong, was six times lower in the past 10 weeks compared to the same period last year, the report said.

 

The government is planning to spend $311 million to tackle the problem by setting up water conservation projects and repairing water access to the countryside, the paper added...