In eastern Jiangxi province, two million people are suffering water shortages, the provincial water resources department said in a statement posted on the Internet.

Another 10 million farmers are threatened by drought, as the amount of rain this summer has been only about one-fifth of the average level of past years, the department said.

In neighboring Fujian province, more than a million people also face a lack of drinking water, state-run Xinhua news agency said on its website.

The situation is particularly bad in the city of Fuzhou, where the temperature at one point last week reached 41 degrees Celsius (106 degrees Fahrenheit), the highest level on record since 1880, the report said.

In southern Guangxi Zhuang region, another 670,000 people are hit by a shortage of drinking water, Xinhua said.

TERRA.WIRE