GUANGZHOU — South China's Guangdong province has taken multiple measures including rationing the water supply, diverting water resources and carrying out artificial precipitation enhancement to relieve a lingering drought.

Less rainfall and inadequate reservoir water storage since October last year have strained the drinking water supply in a number of cities in Guangdong.

The provincial drought-relief headquarters said the provincial government has appropriated 330 million yuan (about $50.4 million) in drought relief funds, and local governments have mobilized 700,000 people to assist the work.

Since October 2020, the precipitation in Guangdong has averaged 130.3 mm, down 58 percent from the historical average for the period. In March, the average runoff of the Hanjiang River basin in eastern Guangdong was down 76 percent from the recent historical average.

According to the headquarters, the total water storage of large and medium-sized reservoirs in the province was also down 4.48 billion cubic meters from the historical average.

In drought-hit Jieyang city, water pipelines were laid and new water wells dug to relieve the drinking water shortage. Shanwei City introduced 8,350 water pumps to divert water urgently to alleviate the drought in farmland. The cities of Chaozhou and Shantou have adopted artificial precipitation enhancement to increase precipitation, and rationed the water supply to residential areas.