Drought expands in China despite rain

BEIJING C Rainfall in southern China provided little respite for millions of residents suffering from the worst drought in a century, a local official said Monday. The army, meanwhile, began delivering water to some of the worst-affected areas.

Teams of workers in China's southern province of Yunnan, which received as much as 1.5 inches (38 millimeters) of water in some areas over the weekend, continued to dig and drill for wells to ease water shortage needs, according to a director at the Yunnan Land Resources Bureau, who would give only his surname Ma.

"It has been the worst drought in 100 years, so it will take a lot more than a few rainstorms to ease it," said Ma. "It has severely dried up our land."

In neighboring Guangxi, which is also seeing its worst drought in a century, two more cities, Liuzhou and Laibin, were added to the list of areas affected by the drought as water levels dropped by as much as 90 percent in some areas, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

About 61 million people have been affected by the drought and 12 million acres (about 5 million hectares) left barren since last year in Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Chongqing and Guangxi, Xinhua said.

China's huge land mass means droughts can occur in one region while other parts of the country experience severe storms that can cause floods.

"There has only been enough rain to plant certain crops like corn, but not enough to grow rice or provide adequate drinking water," Ma said.

Authorities plan to fire 520 cloud-seeding shells in the drought-hit areas to create artificial precipitation, according to Xinhua. It did not say when that would happen.

China has experimented for decades with cloud seeding to induce rainfall. International scientists say there has never been proof that such methods produce results.

Eight teams of drilling experts, including geological and water experts, were working in the hardest-hit regions of Guizhou, Guangxi and Yunnan last week to tap underground water resources, according to the National Flood Control and Drought Relief Web site.

Some water reserves could be found as close as 164 feet (50 meters) to the surface, while in other drier regions workers may need to drill as deep as 656 feet (200 meters) underground, Ma said.

State broadcaster China Central Television showed scenes Monday of military personnel being deployed to the disaster areas to transport water.