Drought in China's northwestern province of Shaanxi has left at least 300,000 people short of drinking water and similar weather conditions have afflicted other parts of the country, Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday. Below-average levels of rainfall and higher-than-usual temperatures in Shaanxi in recent weeks had also affected thousands of hectares of cropland and curbed water supplies for 60,000 animals, it said.

Drought had also affected areas of northeast, northwest and southwest China over the past month, it cited the weather bureau as saying. Conditions in some parts of the country were set to deteriorate, with the worst drought in five years expected to hit central parts of Ningxia region in the spring, it said.

Most of China had experienced unusually warm temperatures this winter, with little snow or rain compared to recent years, it said. Temperatures in the Chinese capital Beijing had hit 16 Celsius (60.80F) on Monday, their highest levels in 167 years, according to Xinhua. They soared above 23 degrees Celsius (73.40F) in the financial hub Shanghai on Tuesday and reached similar peaks in some cities in eastern Anhui province, where temperatures were their highest for this time of year in half a century, it said.

Rising temperatures around the globe have raised the alarm on greenhouse gas emissions. A senior policy adviser from the People's University of China, Zou Ji, told Reuters in remarks published on Monday that Beijing would probably release its first plan to battle climate change this year. On Tuesday, China's foreign ministry said Beijing was willing to contribute to curbing greenhouses gases from industry, agriculture and vehicles but that wealthy countries bore the blame, and the solution lay in their hands.
(Planet Ark, 08/02/2007)