CHINA> National
No end in sight to dry weather
By Wang Qian (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-02-07 09:42


Photo taken on February 5, 2009 shows a dead wheat seedling in Taiping township of Huining County, northwest China's Gansu Province. The county has suffered from severe drought since September 2008, affecting 150,667 hectares of farmland and leaving 184,000 people and 326,000 livestocks in shortage of water. [Xinhua] 

From Jan 4 to Wednesday, provincial meteorological agencies have fired more than 3,900 cannons and 1,190 rockets to seed rain, in order to relieve the severe situation in Guangxi, Jiangxi and Shanxi provinces and the Xinjiang autonomous region.

"We are doing our best to prevent the situation worsening," Zhai said.

China has raised its drought emergency alert level from orange to red - the highest level - for the first time.

About 66,667 hectares of crop fields have been affected by the dry spell, leaving 4.29 million people and 2.07 million heads of livestock short of water, Er Jingping, secretary-general of the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, said on Thursday.