China warns drought-hit provinces to prepare for floods

BEIJING: China warned several central and southern provinces hit by a months-long dry spell on Saturday to prepare for heavy rain and even floods, which would help to ease a drought which has damaged crops and cut power from hydroelectric dams.

State television and the official Xinhua news agency said that the provinces of Guizhou, Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangxi and Zhejiang would experience rain, thunderstorms and strong winds.

"Rain in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River will be beneficial to replenishing water in reservoirs and lakes and to ameliorating the drought," Xinhua citied the China Meteorological Administration as saying.

Provinces must be on alert heavy rains and for possible landslides and other natural disasters, it said.

In some drought-affected provinces it has already begun to rain quite hard, state television added, showing pictures of drenched streets and fields.

Officials have said parts of China are enduring their worst drought in 50 years, with rainfall 40 to 60 percent less than normal.

China has just six percent of the globe's fresh water resources but a fifth of its population.

Copyright Reuters, 2011