Northeast China's Liaoning Province is still suffering from the worst summer drought in 56 years despite rain over the past two days, the provincial flood control and drought relief office said.

 

The average precipitation was only 13 mm on Wednesday and Thursday and in the worst hit northwestern areas it was three to four millimeters, officials with the office said.

 

The widespread precipitation brought slight relief, but had failed to fill the dried-up rivers and reservoirs.

 

More than 1.7 million people and 760,000 heads of livestock are still short of drinking water, and 183 reservoirs have dried up.

 

The drought, the worst in Liaoning since records began in 1951, has hit 2.15 million hectares of farmland, or 68 percent of the province's total, according to the office.

 

Planes and rockets were used on Wednesday, right after rain started to pelt the province, to seed clouds and produce 283 million tons of rain in more than eight hours to help relieve the drought.

 

(Xinhua News Agency June 30, 2007)