China drought leaves 13 mln thirsty

A truck brings drinking water to villagers in Xinchang County, east China's Zhengjiang Province, Aug. 15, 2013. Xinchang has suffered a lingering heat wave since July, leaving water sources dried up and 22,300 people short of drinking water. (Xinhua/Tan Jin)

A drought that has parched China's southern regions since last month has left nearly 13 million people without easy access to drinking water, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said Thursday.

Continuous hot and rainless weather in the provinces of Anhui, Hunan, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Hubei and Zhejiang, as well as Chongqing Municipality, has caused total crop failure on around 900,000 hectares of farmland.

The drought caused a direct economic loss of nearly 40 billion yuan (6.5 billion U.S. dollars).

Hunan and Guizhou are the worst-hit regions where 3.35 million and 2.98 million people respectively are facing water shortages. The provinces suffered 14 billion and 9 billion yuan in direct economic losses.