A severe drought has hit southern China's booming Guangdong Province, destroying crops and causing other problems for residents.
About 93,000 acres (230,000 hectares) of farmland have been affected by the water shortage, including 52,610 acres (130,000 hectares) of grain land and fields of sugar cane, peanuts and other cash crops, the China Daily reported.The hardest-hit areas are Xuwen, Leizhou, Yangjiang, Maoming and Suixi in western Guangdong, the province nearest to the British colony of Hong Kong.
Since the winter, rainfall in the region has been sparse, with the situation for drinking water being a serious problem in localities which have more than 100,000 people, the report said. In one city, rainfall in the months of March and April combined was only 20 percent of the usual average for the period.
Some 9,429 acres (23,300 hectares) of Yangjiang's crop land has dried up.
"The region's grain, sugar cane and peanut harvest is likely to be seriously affected," the newspaper said.
The parched conditions also have persisted in eastern regions of Guangdong, including the localities of Shanwei, Chaozhou, Meizhou and Jieyang.
Officials said the dry weather is forecast to continue in many of the areas into next month, which likely means the harvest of early crops will be affected.