Severe drought lingers in Hubei  

Wuhan (CNS) – A drought that continues to parch central China's Hubei Province has affected 400,000 hectares of crops and left 480,000 people short of drinking water, the provincial government said Sunday.

High temperatures and decreased rainfall since July have exacerbated the problem and more than half of the province's small reservoirs have dried up, the authority said.

According to the drought relief office of Jingshan County, a major crop producer, it only has 0.23 billion cubic meters of water reserves in its reservoirs, 17.8 percent less than last year. Suizhou, Jinmen, Yichang, Xiangyang and Xiaogan are undergoing similar conditions.