Several southern Chinese provinces usually hit by floods have been cursed by severe drought since autumn.

Among the hardest hit are Hainan Province, Hunan Province and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, while Guangdong Province is experiencing its most serious drought for 13 years.

Unexpected low rainfall is the main reason for the drought, which shows no sign of abating.

Average rainfall in Guangxi, for example, was only recorded as 207 millimetres in August and September, a reduction of 45 per cent from the same months of the previous year.

The sweeping drought has taken a heavy economic toll and caused severe interruptions to people's daily lives.

The direct casualties are the autumn harvests and scaled-down factory production in some cities, which has forced many farmers to slaughter their domestic animals.

In Guangdong and Guangxi alone, a preliminary assessment of the direct economic losses are a staggering 4 billion yuan (US$483 million), according to a Xinhua report.

It is unclear what has caused the rainfall to shrink so drastically this year.

In a country as vast as China, natural disasters like flooding and drought are a common feature.

Yet the severity of this drought is rare, being the worst to hit the area in 50 years.

Usually, China's northern and western areas are drought-prone, while its southern and eastern regions are often flooded in summertime.

Hardest hit are usually farmers, and in this case they are again the victims.

Farming income in provinces that are currently under the drought spell will be severely affected as their autumn harvests plummet and the planting season is missed for next year's crops.

Efforts have been and are being made to help.

As always, central and local governments will dole out a certain amount of emergency cash to help drought victims recoup some of their losses.

But in these instances, farmers in different regions tend to get different handouts, depending on their local governments' financial strengths.

Although some farmers have started insuring themselves against crop failure, they are low in number and in any case their policies only insure them against common natural problems, not disasters of this scale.

Here, farmers in South China are more likely to buy insurance against flooding rather than drought, which is rare.

The government could use some of the specially earmarked emergency fund for flooding and drought to buy much-needed insurance.

The cash help could thus be used as a preventative measure rather than a cure.

The government certainly needs to find some more effective sort of mechanism.

(China Daily November 1, 2004)