GUIYANG - A severe and persistent drought in Southwest China's Guizhou province has created a drinking water shortage affecting more than 5.47 million people, local authorities said.

Local governments have induced artificial rains, drilled wells and pumped water out of the ground to ease the drought and combat the shortage. The drinking water shortage for 4.4 million people had been eased as of Thursday, according to a statement released Friday by the Guizhou Provincial Department of Civil Affairs.

The drought, which began in early July, has dried up 479 reservoirs and 349 rivers, devastated crops and reduced available supplies of drinking water.

The Guizhou provincial government has allotted 60 million yuan (about $9.38 million) as a special subsidy to explore and utilize underground water. An additional 40 million yuan will be allocated to drill wells to ease the water shortage for daily usage and irrigation needs.

As of Thursday, nearly 1.1 million hectares of crops had been impacted by the drought, with 22,000 hectares rendered unable to be harvested, and about 3 million heads of livestock were suffering from drinking water shortages.

According to weather forecasts, no rainfall is expected in Guizhou in the coming two weeks, thus extending the drought and making its damage more serious, said a report released by the provincial meteorological bureau.

High temperatures and scant rains also continued to wreak havoc on southwest China's Yunnan province, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous, Sichuan province and the municipality of Chongqing this week.

On Friday, the National Commission for Disaster Reduction and the Ministry of Civil Affairs sent a special team to Yunnan province to assist in local relief efforts.

Figures from Yunnan's provincial civil affairs department show that by Friday more than six million people in 47 counties had been affected and nearly 1.5 million had difficulty accessing drinking water in the province.

Additionally, more than 92,000 hectares of crops were rendered unable to be harvested in Yunnan.

The central government has allocated over 2 billion yuan to support local drought-fighting efforts in these areas.