(Yicai Global) Feb. 5 -- China’s Ministry of Water Resources has placed controls on the amount of water used for industrial production and agricultural irrigation, so as to conserve enough water for urban and rural residents, it said yesterday.

Data published the same day showed that since October, rainfall in regions south of the Yangtze River has been 50 percent to 80 percent less than normal. 

There have been droughts in the provinces of Zhejiang, Guangdong and Fujian, and signs of drought in Hunan, Yunnan and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Tight water supply in some of the most-affected areas has forced local governments to take emergency action, the ministry said, adding that about 2.4 million people have been affected so far. 

Water supplies will be limited in Ningbo, Zhejiang province tonight. Yueqing in Wenzhou had already begun to restrict supply to hotels, businesses and public institutions, as well as swimming pools, public baths and car-washes from Jan. 4. 

Rainfall since the end of 2020 in regions south of the Yangtze River was 40 percent to 70 percent less than usual and distributed quite unevenly, the Ministry of Emergency Management said on Feb. 2. Droughts have damaged 10,900 hectares of crops in Guangxi, Hunan and other regions, resulting in direct economic losses of CNY175 million (USD27 million). 

Editor: Tom Litting