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The ongoing spring planting in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has been shackled by a rare drought, which is more serious than the one that hit the region last year, sources said.
Low soil moisture content has been reported in 48 percent of the farmland in the area, and the figure is 17 percentage points higher than last year.
Due to continuous drought and lack of rainfall, nearly 20 percent of Inner Mongolia's electricity-operated wells failed to pump enough water from underground. And a considerable portion of the region's reservoirs and ponds are dry. As a result, some 530, 000 people and 4.5 million cattle in the region are affected by a shortage of drinking water.
(Xinhua 04/10/2001)
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