About 2.62 million hectares of farmland, amounting to over two-thirds of Jilin Province's farmland, have been affected, according to Qiu Shuqin, an official from Jilin Province's Agricultural Department.

The consistent dry spell has also caused a shortage of drinking water for nearly 3 million people and 360,000 head of livestock.

The spring drought, which has lasted for almost 100 days, has mainly hit the central and northwestern parts of Jilin and Liaoning Province and the western part of Heilongjiang Province.

The rainfall plunged by over 70 percent to 9.9 millimeters in Changchun district from April 1 to May 10, compared with the same period last year, according to the Jilin Meteorological Bureau.

Most of the rivers, lakes and reservoirs shrank significantly and do not have sufficient supplies of water to get through the drought due to a serious decrease in rainfall and abnormally high temperature, according to Wang Haiguo, official from the Hydrology and Water Resource Reconnaissance Department of Jilin Province.

About 150 of the province's reservoirs - which supply farmland - have dried up and 3,200 wells are short of water.

Water is only available in some districts of Changchun at certain times of day - usually from six to eight o'clock in the morning and in the evening. Car washes have been asked to recycle used water.

Local authorities have invested 130 million yuan (US$15.7 million) to fight against the drought and secure drinking water and adequate supplies for spring planting through building water conservancy projects and replanting drought-enduring plants.

(China Daily May 26, 2003)