The water conservancy facilities in southwest China's Sichuan Province were seriously damaged in the magnitude 7.8 quake and the losses were estimated at 5.2 billion yuan (about 740 million U.S. dollars).

As of 11:00 a.m. Saturday, 88,615 water source facilities had been destroyed, affecting 3.62 million people in the province, according to statistics of the provincial water resources department.

The quake also destroyed 7,635 kilometers of irritation canals, affecting crops on nearly 224,000 hectares of farmland. The damaged power transmission lines in the rural areas added up to 1,978 km, affecting 1.16 million people.

(Xinhua News Agency May 17, 2008)