国内英语新闻:To spree, or to save? Drought put sprinkling festival under fire

"Look at the huge cracks on the land and withered crops," a netizen self-called Xishuang Xingzhe, or Faquir in Xishuangbannan, said at a forum of www. news.cn. "The drought is so severe, but they will still sprinkle water that is now as precious as life. It is a bit too brutal and the celebration is too big a luxury."

"On one hand water is as precious as oil, but on the other, water is regarded as nothing. Maybe such a sharp contrast could only arouse people's alertness in such a disaster year," a netizen called Huiwen said in a post.

The drought has lingered in southwest China for months, affecting 61.3 million residents and 5 million hectares of crops in Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan, Chongqing, and Guangxi, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said Wednesday.

Locals and tourists sprinkle water at each other during the annual Songkran, known as the Water-Splashing Festival in Xishuangbanna, southwest China's Yunnan Province, April 15, 2007.

The dry weather has also left 18 million residents and 11.7 million head of livestock in thirsty for water and caused direct economic losses of 23.7 billion yuan (3.5 billion U.S. dollars).

In the hardest-hit Yunnan province, direct agricultural economic losses are estimated at 17 billion yuan.

The drought has forced many villagers to sell their cattle for very low prices and left their cropland infertile.

Dry weather has affected over 80 percent of all planting areas in Yunnan, a region producing fresh flowers, rapeseed, sugar cane, tobacco and tea.

Many people in remote mountainous areas even have to walk kilometers to fetch water. In addition, 8.2 million people in Yunnan are short of food.

Some meterological experts said the drought is likely to continue to worsen till May when the rainy season starts.