Drought hits crops and water supplies

BEIJING - The area of drought-plagued crops across the country has increased to 5.16 million hectares, and is expected to expand as forecasters have predicted the dry spell in North and East China will continue.

About 60 percent of the drought-hit crop areas are in East China's Shandong province and Central China's Henan province, which have seen no effective rainfall for more than 100 days, Minister of Water Resources Chen Lei said on Sunday.

Chen said at a news conference in Beijing that the dry weather has caused shortages of drinking water in areas such as the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, and some northern cities are under increasing pressure to maintain normal water supplies.