SW Chinese Government Calls Drought Worst In A Century - AFP

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SHANGHAI (AFP) - A major drought affecting millions of people in southwestern China is being called "the worst in a century", as state press reports said searing temperatures had set off uncontrollable fires.

Fire fighters and more than 1,500 residents were battling forest blazes that had consumed 67 hectares (165 acres) in the northern part of Chongqing municipality since Wednesday, a report by China Radio International said.

Officials in Chongqing were calling the drought the worst in a century as a total of 21 million people had found themselves affected, with more than seven million of them without adequate drinking water. "It's the biggest drought in 100 years," the Wen Hui Bao newspaper quoted Chongqing vice mayor Chen Guangguo as saying on Thursday, while an official with the disaster relief office in Chongqing agreed.

Over 1.2 million hectares (3.3 million acres) of farmland were short of water, and direct economic losses from crop failures and 97 fires now totaled more than 6 billion yuan (750 million dollars), said He Lingyun, director of the city disaster relief office..

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060831/sc_afp/chinaweatherdroughtwater_060831124836