China drought deprives millions of drinking water
By Andrew Torchia SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Millions of people and cattle in north China face shortages of drinking water because of a severe drought, the government said on Saturday, promising to speed up disbursement of billions of dollars of subsidies to farmers. State television quoted disaster relief officials as saying 4.4 million people and 2.1 million cattle lacked adequate drinking water. Official media have described the drought as north China’s worst in half a century. The Ministry of Finance said it would accelerate disbursement of 86.7 billion yuan ($12.7 billion) of annual subsidies for farmers to assist grain production and minimize the impact of the drought on rural incomes. The government is particularly anxious to avoid a drop in rural incomes because of the threat of social unrest as millions of migrant workers, laid off from urban jobs during China’s economic slump, return to the countryside. … The drought is hitting eight provinces which contain about half of China’s wheat-growing areas. As of Friday, 10.7 million hectares of wheat-growing fields had been affected in those provinces, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Of that area, 4.5 million hectares were seriously damaged and 420,000 hectares suffered destruction of wheat shoots, the ministry said. Just over half of the total affected area had been irrigated so far.
