Millions suffer

Please barter away the water!< Nature typically distributes its bounty paradoxically, as is evident in China, which is suffering flood and drought simultaneously. Over 7.6 million people in the country's rural areas have been hit by a severe drought; nearly 6.3 million livestock and over 5 million hectares of crops had been affected when reports last came in.

"There hasn't been enough rain in Shanxi Province or the Inner Mongolian and Ningxia Hui autonomous regions in North and Northwest China...dry spells have also hit...Central China's Hunan and Southwest China's Guizhou Province as well as Chongqing Municipality," said a government source.

Meanwhile, as of August 12, 2005, 910 people had died in floods and related disasters that hit 27 of China's 31 mainland provinces, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Over 134 million people were hit by the floods.