GUIYANG - A severe drought in Southwest China has dried up hundreds of reservoirs and rivers, devastated farm fields and made drinking water scarce, local authorities said.

The drought, which has lasted since early July, has dried up 479 reservoirs and 349 rivers in Guizhou province, the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters said in a statement on Thursday.

The drought has plagued 86 of the province's 88 cities and counties as last month's total rainfall was 69.8-percent below average, leaving over 5.5 million people short of drinking water, according to the headquarters.

The headquarters said earlier that rainfall in August was also below average.

As of Thursday, nearly 1.1 million hectares of crops have been affected by the drought and 2.78 million heads of livestock were suffering from the drinking water shortage.

Many parts of the province have embraced this week's rainfall, but, according to the statement, it did not rain long enough to ease the drought.

The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters on Wednesday sent work teams to Guizhou, as well as the other drought-ravaged southern provinces of Yunnan, Hunan, Sichuan and Chongqing municipality, to assist in drought-relief operations.

According to the provincial headquarters' statement, Guizhou has allocated 640 million yuan (about $200 million) in drought relief.

Meanwhile, the province's water resource departments have been drilling wells and pumping water out of the ground to ensure a supply of drinking water and save crops, it said.