Families affected by the drought in Southwest China’s Sichuan Province that began in early July of last year await water by the bucketful. From Reuters, via MSNBC:
Armed police are delivering water to villages in drought-hit southwestern China, where nearly 4 million people face shortages, state media said on Wednesday.
The 4 million people and 4.5 million cattle have inadequate drinking water in the province of Sichuan and 116,000 people have to rely on water wagons to supply them drinking water, the China Daily said.
In Guanyin, part of the city of Suining, 80 of the 98 wells and two of the three reservoirs have dried up.
“Its residents have to rely on armed police to send them water every day,” an official was quoted as saying.
“The Sichuan provincial government has asked governments at all levels to make solving the water shortage crisis a top priority,” the newspaper said.
Nearly 1 million people in the western province of Gansu are short of drinking water as the area faces its worst drought in 60 years, Xinhua said last month.
China is exploring a series of massive water transfer projects to address water supply problems in a country with per-capita water resources well below global averages.
A government report has also warned that global warming in the future is likely to make China vulnerable to more drought in its arid north and flooding in the south.
