5.95 mln people suffer water shortage due to drought in China

Nearly 6 million Chinese people are facing acute water shortage since mid June due to drought that has caused direct economic losses of USD 1.98 billion, the government said today.
According to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, this drought has caused direct economic losses of USD 1.98 billion and affected about 2.09 million hectares of farmland, leading to nearly 350,000 hectares unharvestable.
Nearly 4.3 million people among those affected live in Guizhou and Hunan provinces, with the rest are in Hubei, Chongqing, Jiangxi and Zhejiang, state-run Xinhua quoted the ministry.
About 5.95 million people are short of water in 13 provincial-level areas.

Government's report said that so far about 4.03 million people were in need of government assistance.
The drought has also left 1.72 million livestock short of water, the report added.