Jilin is continuing to battle its worst drought on record, with nearly 290,000 people in the northeastern province struggling for access to drinking water and two-thirds of farmland parched, according to state media.
The province has been in the grip of a heatwave for nearly a month, with registered temperatures 3.3 degrees Celsius higher on average than the previous historical average. In some areas, the mercury has hit 41.6 degrees Celsius, the China News Service reported.
Rainfall is also down dramatically, with 6.2mm of rain recorded on average in June, a drop of about 90 per cent.
Xie Wanku , deputy head of the Jilin Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, was quoted by Xinhua as saying that a dozen cities had reported water shortages and about 2.67 million hectares of farmland had been hit.
Mr Xie said the province had managed to provide water for 150,000 people and 211,200 head of livestock in the affected areas, but there were almost double that number of people and more than 180,000 livestock still in need of supplies.
Authorities have spent more than 300 million yuan trying to cope with the drought and have begun tapping about 270,000 emergency wells.