Severe Drought Threatens Harvest in China's Southwest

For more news and videos visit ☛ ‪http://english.ntdtv.com Follow us on Twitter ☛ ‪http://twitter.com/NTDTelevision Add us on Facebook ☛http://me.lt/9P8MUn An ongoing drought in China's southwest province of Guizhou has left farmlands parched with big cracks. Local residents are struggling to irrigate their crops— faced with little hope of a harvest. A persistent drought in southwest China's poorest province of Guizhou has scorched crops—leaving farmlands parched and looking more like a desert. According to local authorities, more than 30 counties and cities are afflicted by the severe drought. Temperatures top 95 degrees Fahrenheit in southeast Guizhou. The drought has scorched 2.6-million acres of farmlands. It has led to a shortage of drinking water for more than 3-million local residents and over a million farm animals. "There's no water. All the pools and wells have dried up. What's little left in the reservoir is not enough to irrigate the crops." Anti-drought tools have been used to help villagers locate water sources. "The drought is extremely severe. I am over 70 years old and have never seen a drought like this." The spokesman at the Guizhou Flood Control and Drought Relief headquarters says the dry season has persisted for nearly 50 days. [Qiu Feng, Flood Control and Drought Relief Spokesman]: "Drought in our province normally begins from July and lasts until August. Summer drought came early this year. The much more serious drought has affected more regions. If the drought continues, the mountainous areas with poor irrigation facilities, especially fields directly exposed to the sun without water sources, there would be no hope of a harvest." In Qianxi County—one of the worst hit regions—farmers don't expect to harvest any crops, even though they'd planted more corn to replace the withered crops.