13 million

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 on Thursday. A long spell of hot and dry weather in Anhui, Hunan, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Hubei and Zhejiang provinces, as well as Chongqing, has destroyed about 900,000 hectares of crops.

(China Daily USA 08/16/2013 page2)