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| A girl waits for her turn to fetch water at Guimo Village, Qinglong County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, on March 4, 2010. The dry spell would last through the first half of March in China's southwest, including provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan, and Guizhou. (Xinhua/Liu Xu) |
GUIYANG, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Zhang Xingliang spent nine hours trying to get water from the only well that had not dried in a southwest China village, but his pail was still half empty at the end of the day.
"It's increasingly difficult to get water," said Zhang, from Xingren County in Guizhou Province.
The wheat and vegetables in his field withered weeks ago. "You don't care much about the crops when you're running out of drinking water yourself," said Zhang.
Wells, reservoirs and ponds have dried up in the drought that has plagued southwestern China for nearly six months.
