East China Province Hit by Water Crisis

Some coastal cities in east China's Shandong Province are restricting water use as a result of serious shortage in water supply, according to an official at the provincial headquarters for drought relief and flood control.

This is one of Shandong's worst water crises, the official said.

In Weihai and Yantai, the hardest-hit areas, residents' water use has been cut by half, and water use is restricted to designated times each day. Residents who exceed the water quota face high fines.

Water use is limited to several hours a day in hotels while tap water use is banned at car washes and some construction sites.

Scant rainfall is mainly blamed for the water shortage, which has resulted in the loss of more than one billion cubic meters of surface water since last year.



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