Despite thousands of people and livestock suffering from a lack of drinking water, villagers in one drought-hit region are being asked to divert funds from water resources to the construction of a temple for tourists, China National Radio reported on Monday.

Xinhua county in Central China's Hunan province, one of the state-level poverty-stricken counties, had planned to invest 50 million yuan ($7.7 million) in building a temple to attract tourists and enhance the revenue of the county. But due to a lack of money, the project has been on hold for a considerable period of time.

Since last year villagers have been asked to donate for the project and every country has "donation target" set from 6,000 to 10,000 yuan, despite huge water shortages.

Zhenghui village has a target of 10,000 yuan. "It was deducted from our county's fund of 35,000 yuan for digging canals," the village accountant said.

"If the donation target cannot be reached, it will be deducted from the salaries of the villages' leaders," the village party secretary said.

The mayor of Chaxi county, where the temple will be located, denied the deduction, saying the construction funds mainly come from the government and the target was just a guiding number but not an administrative order.